IN THE CLASSROOM:Water, water, everywhere

Starting this year at Eastbluff Elementary School, it’s finally going to be easy to make water wet.

Up until now, the school’s students mostly read about the elements of H2O and did not have ready access to the wet stuff in the classroom.

That’s because Eastbluff — like other elementary campuses in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District — lacked a state-of-the-art science classroom, meaning that most scientific learning had to be done out of books. Last week, though, the school opened a new facility containing sinks, microscopes, laptop outlets and other modern equipment.

So on Thursday, when teacher Mike Hurley led fifth-graders through an experiment on the water cycle, Eastbluff kicked off a new era of classroom science. Hurley had managed to do the experiment last year, but with sinks, faucets and freezers scattered across campus, it required a lot more legwork.

“Logistically, it was a lot harder,” Hurley said. “I have sinks right here [in the new classroom] and if I need to dispense of water, I do it quickly.”

On Thursday morning, two dozen fifth-graders gathered with Hurley, one of the district’s newly appointed elementary science teachers, to test different ways of making water evaporate. Hurley started the class by illustrating the three stages of the water cycle — evaporation, condensation and precipitation — on the board, then had the students do a hands-on exercise.

The water cycle, Hurley explained, results from heat and energy, as increased temperatures or strong winds cause water to evaporate. To test different methods of turning liquid into gas, he gave groups of students a stopwatch and a dropper containing one milliliter of water, then had them attempt to evaporate the water using heat lamps, fans, and even their own breath.

By the end of the lesson, it was clear that lamps had finished first.

“When it evaporates, it looks like worms moving in all directions,” said Victoria Martinez, 9, as she focused her beam on the water that she and her friends had drizzled on a paper towel.

One table over, three girls — Miranda Reenan, Courtney Wilson and Gracie Otterbein — attempted to evaporate the water by breathing hard on it. The task stimulated their minds, but exhausted their lungs a bit.

“I feel faint,” said Miranda, 10, as she paused to collect her breath.

The other two girls bent over the paper with her, but after a minute of intense breathing, liquid was still liquid.

“I’ll never boil water this way,” Gracie said.