Learning Map
ScienceEcosystems & Habitatsusually ages 11–12

The Water Cycle

Describe the water cycle, tracing water through evaporation, condensation, precipitation, surface runoff, and transpiration in plants, explaining how the sun drives the cycle

How to tell they’ve got it

Tick these off as you see them — no test required.

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Try this together

If your child watched rain falling outside and was asked where that water had been before it fell, could they trace its journey through the water cycle from the sea to the clouds to the rain and back?

Where this sits on the map

Stuck here? Check the skills it builds on first. Confident? Here’s what it unlocks.

Builds on
Evaporation & the Water Cycleages 8–9The KS3 water cycle (including transpiration and surface runoff) builds directly on KS2 understanding of evaporation and condensation
The Water Cycleages 7–9The exploratory weather/climate water cycle topic provides an accessible entry point before the formal KS3 treatment
The Water Cyclethis skill · ages 11–12
Unlocks
Nothing on the map depends on this yet.

solid = must come firstdashed = helps

Curriculum alignment

Candidate matches to official curriculum codes — machine-suggested, unreviewed (v0.1).

Show candidate curriculum codes · 1 ACARA

Australian Curriculum v9 candidate

AC9S6U02low confidenceYear 6 · Science understanding

describe the movement of Earth and other planets relative to the sun and model how Earth’s tilt, rotation on its axis and revolution around the sun relate to cyclic observable phenomena, including variable day and night length

These are candidate alignments generated by semantic matching — machine-suggested and unreviewed (v0.1), not official or verified mappings. For official curriculum content see australiancurriculum.edu.au, curriculum.nsw.edu.au and f10.vcaa.vic.edu.au. Don’t rely on them for registration or compliance purposes.

Nearby on the map

All Ecosystems & Habitats skills →