Category: Earth

Erosion – Activities

FOCUS: Our study of the geosphere begins with a look at how, over time, the powerful agents of erosion have shaped and formed our landscape. Gravity, water, wind, and ice are constantly weathering, wearing away, and moving rocks, soil, sand, and sediments and depositing them elsewhere. We’ll also consider the impact humans have on erosion, deposition, and our ever-changing landscape.

INTRODUCTION
Objective: To begin to explore and ask questions about erosion.

Find a good example of erosion on the school grounds for children to visit, and ask children what they think is going on.

Alternatively, have a basin of soil similar to what the children will get for the Design Challenge. Demonstrate erosion by pouring water on it with a watering can or spraying with a spray bottle. Ask children if they can think of other places where erosion has changed the landscape.

DROP BY DROP
Objective: To use a model to investigate the effects of water drops falling on bare soil.

Ask the children if they think that a drop of water could be an agent of erosion – could it move soil, sand, or fine sediment around? How could we find out? Continue reading Erosion – Activities

Erosion – Standards

EROSION ALIGNMENT WITH
NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS

The activities in this unit help children understand the basic concepts in the Disciplinary Core Ideas listed here. You can use the following list as a guide for lesson planning. These Disciplinary Core Ideas are taken from Grade Band Endpoints in A Framework for K-12 Science Education. Additionally, our activities give children opportunities to engage in many of the Science and Engineering Practices and reflect on the Crosscutting Concepts as identified in the Next Generation Science Standards. Continue reading Erosion – Standards

Rocks and Minerals – Background

Who hasn’t stopped to pick up a pebble, to admire or wonder about its color or texture, or just to toss it in your hand? Rocks speak to us, especially as children, and for some people, like geologists, sculptors, stone masons, and rock hounds, the fascination with rocks lasts a lifetime. Of course rocks can’t really talk, but they can tell us about the history of our rocky planet and its living creatures, if we know where and how to look.

Every pebble we find is part of the geosphere, the rocky covering of our planet. The Earth’s crust is a layer of rock from three to thirty miles thick that underlies Continue reading Rocks and Minerals – Background

Rocks and Minerals – Activities

FOCUS: Studying rocks helps us to piece together the story of how the geosphere, the Earth’s rocky outer layer, has been shaped and changed over time. We’ll meet some rocks that formed by three different processes, examine some minerals we find in rocks, and look for fossils of ancient creatures. Underlying all the Earth’s land and water, rocks provide a foundation that supports the living world, gives clues about past life forms, and provides us with many materials that we use in our everyday lives.

INTRODUCTION
Objective: To begin to explore and ask questions about rocks and minerals.

In small groups, have the children sit in a circle. Give each child a paper sandwich bag containing a small rock. Have the children feel their rock without looking at it, noticing its smoothness, texture, any irregularities in the shape, if the edges seem rounded or sharp etc. Then, on the count of three, have the children put their bag in front of the person on their right. Now have them feel the pebble in their new bag, pass again, and repeat until everyone has had a chance to feel three or four different rocks, or continue until everyone has their starting rock back again. Finally, let the children take the rock they have out of the bag to look at it. Have them set all the rocks out in front of them so everyone can admire the whole collection. Ask children for ideas about why rocks can be so different from each other.

Materials: brown paper lunch bags, small rocks (from one to four inches in diameter) with different textures and shapes, one per student.

ROCKS UP CLOSE
Objective: To examine granite, looking for the mineral crystals in it, and meet some other rocks.

Give each child a piece of granite to examine with a magnifying lens, looking for the different-colored mineral crystals in the rock. Continue reading Rocks and Minerals – Activities

Rocks and Minerals – Puppet Show

The Rock Stars

Characters: Girl, Rock Hound, Granny Granite, Sandy Sandstone, Nora Gneiss.

Props: Sign with the word “GNEISS”; sunglasses attached to back side of rock puppets

Girl  Out you go, Howie, but remember, no digging for bones in the yard! (exits)

Rock Hound  Bones? I’m not digging for bones. I’m a Rock Hound and I’m digging for rocks! (sniffs) I think there’s one here – I’ll just dig a tiny little hole… (Granite appears) And here’s a rock with nice speckles – gray, black, white… Continue reading Rocks and Minerals – Puppet Show

Rocks and Minerals – Standards

ROCKS AND MINERALS ALIGNMENT WITH
NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS

The activities in this unit help children understand the basic concepts in the Disciplinary Core Ideas listed here. You can use the following list as a guide for lesson planning. These Disciplinary Core Ideas are taken from Grade Band Endpoints in A Framework for K-12 Science Education. Additionally, our activities give children opportunities to engage in many of the Science and Engineering Practices and reflect on the Crosscutting Concepts as identified in the Next Generation Science Standards. Continue reading Rocks and Minerals – Standards

Blanket of Air – Background

The Earth’s atmosphere, the layer of air that surrounds the planet, is a protective blanket that shields us from harmful radiation and traps heat energy, storing warmth from the sun and keeping temperatures in a range that makes life possible. Animals need air to breathe, plants need it for photosynthesis, and living things also use air to fly, carry scents and sounds, and keep warm. With its many functions in our lives, it’s worthwhile exploring the nature of air.

Held in place by Earth’s gravity, the atmosphere is an envelope of air that extends outward from the surface for some 500 miles, becoming thinner and sparser with distance. Dry air is composed primarily of three gases, with nitrogen making up 78%, oxygen 21%, and argon just under 1%. The remainder is made up of other gases, such as carbon dioxide, ozone, helium, and hydrogen. Continue reading Blanket of Air – Background