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Earth's Water Distribution Pie Chart

This lab document outlines an activity where students create a model and graph to represent the distribution of Earth's water, with 97.2% located in oceans, 2.15% in glaciers, 0.63% in groundwater, and only 0.02% in rivers, lakes and ponds available for human consumption. Students first make a model separating saltwater from freshwater and then construct a pie chart showing the percentages of total water located in each source to conclude that the vast majority of water is unsuitable for drinking while a very small fraction is accessible to humans.

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Jaycelle Daniel Taneo
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55 views3 pages

Earth's Water Distribution Pie Chart

This lab document outlines an activity where students create a model and graph to represent the distribution of Earth's water, with 97.2% located in oceans, 2.15% in glaciers, 0.63% in groundwater, and only 0.02% in rivers, lakes and ponds available for human consumption. Students first make a model separating saltwater from freshwater and then construct a pie chart showing the percentages of total water located in each source to conclude that the vast majority of water is unsuitable for drinking while a very small fraction is accessible to humans.

Uploaded by

Jaycelle Daniel Taneo
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Water Distribution Lab

Problem

How much water on Earth is available to humans to drink?

Materials

Part A Part B
1000-mL graduated cylinder Protractor
100-mL graduated cylinder Compass
10-mL graduated cylinder Calculator
Eyedropper Pencil Crayons
1000mL of water
Balance
Salt

Procedure
Part A – Making a Model of Earth’s Water

1. Fill a 1000-mL graduated cylinder with water. This represents all the
water on earth.
2. POUR 30mL of this water into a 100mL graduated cylinder. This 30mL
represents the total amount of fresh water on Earth.
3. Use a balance to measure out 29g of salt. Dissolve the salt in the 970mL
of water remaining in the 1000-mL graduated cylinder. This represents
the amount of water in all the oceans. It is too salty to be drinkable. Put
it aside.
4. Now pick up the 100-mL graduated cylinder containing the 30mL of
fresh water. Pour 6mL into the 10-mL graduated cylinder. Take the 100-
mL graduated cylinder that now contains only 24mL of water and put it
aside. This represents the amount of fresh water that is frozen in glaciers
and icecaps.
5. You now have 6-mL of water left in the 10-mL graduated cylinder. Use
an eyedropper to remove a small amount of water. Let one single drop
fall into your palm. This one drop represents all the fresh water on Earth
that is available for people to drink, located in rivers, lakes and ponds!
The remaining water is located underground.

Part B – Graphing the Distribution of Water on Earth

Construct a circle graph (sometimes called a pie chart) to show the


distribution of water. A circle graph uses a circle divided into sections (pies)
to show the data. All sections together represent all (100%) of the data.

1. Use a compass to make a large circle on a piece of paper. Make a dot in


the center of the circle.

2. Use the following formula for each of the water sources to complete the
following chart. Round your number to the nearest whole number.
Degrees in “piece of pie” = Percent of Total Water/100% x 360
Example: Oceans  97.20% / 100% x 360 = 349.92 = 350

Water Source Percent of Total Water Degrees in “piece of pie”


Oceans 97.20% 350
Glaciers 2.15%
Groundwater 0.63%
Rivers, Lakes, Ponds 0.02%

3. Draw a straight line from the center to the edge of the circle. Use your
protractor to accurately measure the degrees from this line. Make a
mark, and then use this mark to draw a second line back to the center.
Repeat this step for all the sources of water.

4. Color your graph, labeling each “pie” in the circle.

Pie Chart:
Conclusions

1. Describe how much water is available to humans as drinking water,


compared with the rest of the water on Earth.

2. In this activity, you used 2 different methods of presenting information


about the distribution of water on Earth. What were the 2 methods? List
an advantage and disadvantage of each of the 2 methods.

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