Erosion: Lesson 2 Sixth Grade Science Materials: Tub with dirt at a slant Cup or glass to pour water Sponges,

es, napkins, Legos, string, cloth, straws White Board and markers Photographs of various habitats around the world (See Attached) Objective: Students will be able to explain how vegetation reduces erosion. They will also be able to analyze how we can use this information to determine where to live. Finally they will connect this knowledge to landscapes from around the world. 1. Show students the mound of dirt. a. What will happen if I pour water on the top of this pile of dirt? b. How much dirt will be in the water? c. Write all the answers on the board. d. Do the experimenti. What actually happened? ii. Why do you think this happened? e. Where could we find something similar to this in nature? 2. How could we make this more like something we would see in nature? a. Steer conversation towards vegetation. 3. How are sponges like plants? a. What do sponges soak up? b. Why might we be using sponges instead of real plants? 4. How would the results be different if we added vegetation/sponges? a. Write all answers on the board. 5. Here are two bins and sponges-show me what it would be like if this mound had vegetation? a. Work with a partner or two other people to make a model that would show this. b. How are your models alike? c. How do your models compare to the model without sponges or vegetation? d. Why is it important that we pour the same amount of water on these new models as we did the previous model? How can that help us? e. Complete the experiment. i. What happened? ii. How is this different than the hill without vegetation? iii. How much dirt is in the bottom of this pail?

iv. How might this be different with real plants? 6. Why does more vegetation soak up the water? 7. Last week I showed you some pictures of habitats. i. How do these habitats relate to these objects? ii. Put the picture next to the model it is most like. Why did you put those here? iii. How could this information of how water flows help us plan where to put cities or other environments? iv. What might happen to a house on the top? What about one on the bottom? 8. As a group arrange the photographs (introduced in previous lesson) from most likely to erode to least likely to erode. a. Why did you arrange them this way? b. What is similar about the ones most likely to erode? c. What does this information tell us? d. Why do we need a variety of these habitats?

Standards:
4-ESS21. Make observations and/or measurements to provide evidence of the effects of weathering or the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, or vegetation. [Clarification Statement: Examples of variables to test could include angle of slope in the downhill movement of water, amount of vegetation, speed of wind, relative rate of deposition, cycles of freezing and thawing of water, cycles of heating and cooling, and volume of water flow.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to a single form of weathering or erosion. ]

ESS3.C: Human Impacts on Earth Systems

Human activities in agriculture, industry, and everyday life have had major effects on the land, vegetation, streams, ocean, air, and even outer space. But individuals and communities are doing things to help protect Earths resources and environments. (5-ESS3-1)

*Taken from Next Generation Science Standards