Friday, April 11, 2014

Weathering...

After teaching weathering and erosion 5 times in the past two years, I wanted to make some changes to the lab experiments we were doing.

The erosion experiment definitely wasn't working for me (a post about that later!), and the kids weren't really getting weathering-we didn't have any experiments for that one!

So I decided to make my own!

After trolling the internet and Pinterest, I decided to use candy to help show weathering, and water and vinegar to show the difference between physical weathering and chemical weathering.

I divided the students into pairs, and I gave each of them a pie plate with two pieces of candy on it. They also got an eye dropper, a cup of water and a container of vinegar.

I gave out the directions and they went to work!



They thought it was so cool!

I had them recording what they were doing in picture and written form while they did it. I loved hearing the conversations that were going on when they were working!

On the back, I had a series of questions they needed to answer.









When they finished, we discussed the lab, how the weathering changed the candy, as well as them seeing the start of erosion when the liquid and sediment moved away from the candy.

Then we drew a diagram of the weathering and erosion process. I started out by drawing a big rock, and then asking them the different types of weathering that could happen.

They talked me through the process, and I drew examples of what they said. They also drew what I drew-so they have their own mini diagram!

This experiment and diagram worked really well-they did decent on the test as well!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

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