Station 1: Adhesion Because water is polar (has positive and negative sides), water is adhesive.

Adhesion means that water likes to stick to other substances. For example, when you put water in a graduated cylinder, the water molecules adhere (stick) to the glass sides of the cylinder, forming a meniscus. Adhesion is important for capillary action. Capillary action is the ability of water to move up a small tube against the force of gravity. Capillary action is extremely important in plants. Plants absorb water from the ground into their roots, and then must transport that water all the way up the plant to the leaves against the force of gravity. Because water is adhesive, it sticks to the sides of the inside of the plant stem, helping the water move up the plant!

Station 2: Cohesion Because water is polar (has positive and negative sides), water is cohesive. Cohesion means that water likes to stick to itself. Positively-charged hydrogen atoms of one water molecule will stick to negatively charged oxygen atoms of another water molecule. These attractions are called hydrogen bonds. Cohesion is important for plants. Plants have to transport water from the group up to their leaves against the force of gravity. Because water molecules like to stick together, it is easier for the plant to move large amounts of water up its stem at one time.

Station 3: Solute and Solvents A solute is the substance that gets dissolved. A solvent is the substance that does the dissolving. For example, when you dissolve salt in water, salt is the solute, and water is the solvent. Water is known as the universal solvent because it is really good at dissolving stuff. Water is the universal solvent because it is polar (has positive and negative sides). Because water is polar it is sticky, and can pull other substances apart into small pieces, dissolving them. Waters ability to dissolve stuff is really important for living things because it can break apart big molecules into small pieces and transport them. Water can be used to transport substances into our cells, and around our body (our blood is mostly water). Without water, your cells and body parts wouldnt be able to get the nutrients they need to survive!

Station 5: Surface Tension Because water is polar, water molecules are cohesive they like to stick together. When water molecules of the surface of lakes and ponds stick together, we call it surface tension. The water molecules form a surface that insects and some animals can walk on. Some insects such as the water strider and water spider pictured below live entirely on the surface of the water. Without surface tension, these insects couldnt survive. The Jesus lizard can run on the surface of water to escape predators.

Water strider

Water spider

Jesus Lizard