The Bedtime Scientist

Episode guide

The Water Cycle: The Journey of a Droplet

The water in your cup has been a cloud, a river, an ocean, and rain, many times over. This episode follows one droplet the whole way around.

The science, gently

  • Water on Earth is never new; it just keeps traveling between sea, sky, and land.
  • The droplet in your glass may once have drifted over a dinosaur.
  • Every day, the sun quietly lifts billions of tons of water into the air.

Wonder together

  • Where do you think your last sip of water was a hundred years ago?
  • Would you rather be a cloud droplet or a river droplet?
  • What is the longest journey you have ever taken?

Tonight's calm-down

Be a droplet done traveling: landed, pooled, still. No lifting tonight, no falling, just resting in the quiet lake of your bed until the sun comes to visit again.