... and Erosion

After teaching weathering and erosion 5 times in the past two years, I realized that what I was doing wasn't really working for me.

I was using the experiments that the previous teacher showed me, which had us observing erosion over three days and recording our results.

This experiment was teacher-heavy. I was responsible for 'changing' the erosion each day, as well as rushing through each day to make sure the kids had enough time to record their observations and thinking.

Plus, I got kind of bored and the kids didn't really seem to 'get it'.

So I decided to shake things up :)

This time, I made them responsible for the erosion. I had them working in teams of 3, and they had to change the soil by pouring water, blowing on it (wind) or flattening it with our glacier (a small cup).

They loved it! (and so did I!)

It did take us two days to finish, and I might rearrange the order they complete the 'erosion' next year.

First, what they all looked like at the beginning.

We started out with water erosion on day 1.

Then we moved to wind (which I might move to a separate day-it got a little messy-rough winds! ;)

The next day, we focused on glacier erosion

and completed our packets :)

For each day, the students had to make a prediction about what they thought would happen (and explain why), record their observations in picture and written form, and then say if their prediction was right or wrong and why.

After all that, they had to answer questions about the experiment. I also had them give their opinion on which they thought changed the soil the most and why.

We discussed what they noticed about the differences of each type of erosion, and what it should look like (just in case they were unsuccessful!) Some really cool thinking going on!

Plus, they did much better at understanding the difference between the two on the test!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn