It’s Raining Bongs: Our Water Cycle

bong in the cloudsNow it’s time to explore our own planet’s water cycle. As we’ve learned through Bong’s adventure on the Tiny Planet of Nature, the water cycle involves evaporation, condensation and, last but not least, rain.

On Earth, water evaporates from all kinds of bodies of water including lakes, rivers, seas, oceans, puddles and anyplace else that water collects.  When the sun heats the water up it turns into vapor and floats invisibly towards the sky.

Up in the sky, the temperature cools down and so does the water vapor. When this happens the water vapor turns back into a liquid and sticks together. This is called  condensation.  This condensed water forms clouds. Continue reading

Plants, Glorious Plants

United States Botanical Gardens - Washington, D.C.Plants are all over our planet. They give us food, shelter and shade, not to mention something beautiful to look at when we’re outside. Have you ever wondered how all of these plants got here?

Imagine yourself in the wild Amazon jungle. If you were a seed bearing plant, you’d have a hard time making plant babies because the jungle would swallow up the seeds or they’d rot because of all the dampness. That wouldn’t work out very well. So how do jungle plants reproduce? Continue reading

How Does Geography Influence Weather?

Its Not A Cloud, Its Mount Kinabalu!Why is it that some places on Earth only have hot weather? Why do some biomes vary from hot to cold and back again? What does does the climate have to do with biomes? The short answer is that the climate of a region will determine what plants will grow there, and what animals will inhabit it. All three components, climate, plants and animals are bound together like super glue.

Your weather (or climate) is decided by your geographical location. You see, when the sun shines on your planet its rays hit the equator at a direct angle between 23 ° N and 23 ° S latitude.  A direct hit! All the land located in that area ends up being really hot because, well, the sun is HOT! Continue reading