Weathering and Erosion

Sooo...our students have been struggling with the concept of weathering and erosion. We did this last year and a couple of times at the beginning of the year. Per our schedule, we are revisiting this benchmark now. I selected an exploration where the students would make a model of a hill. For the hill, they used a sand and soil mixture. They placed it on one side of a pan. Students then placed a math underneath one side of the pan To prop it up. They poured water into a cup that yet had poked 3 holes in the bottom. This represented the rain. After they made it rain, they made their observations. This was repeated twice. After that, they re-built their hill and added vegetation (used mulch and grass...my husband was not happy I pulled grass from our front yard...lol). They made it rain twice and recorded their observations.

They loved it! There was some really good discussion going on! Must have worked because I have them an exit ticket (I use questions from the FCAT Item Specs) the next day on weathering and erosion....and most of them got it right!!