In this lesson, students will learn what erosion is and how human actions influence erosion. Includes introduction, demonstration instructions, and questions for wrap-up discussion.

NGSS: K-ESS3-3

Time: 50 minutes

Materials: plastic containers with sand and gravel, sponges, and plastic cups.

Students will read the provided complex text about erosion and use the outdoor space to verify or deny the content of the text in the real-world setting.

Students will read the provided complex text about erosion and use the outdoor space to verify or deny the content of the text in the real-world setting.

This activity is a field investigation where students find real-life examples of erosion in their school surroundings. Students will extend what they learned during stream table lessons about erosion, deposition, deltas, meandering streams, and dams.

This activity is a field investigation where students observe evidence of erosion and deposition in the schoolyard or designated area.

Después de leer el texto proporcionado sobre la erosión, utilizarás cualquier espacio al aire libre para validar o invalidar el contenido del mismo.Esta actividad fue creada por Out Teach (out-teach.org), una organización sin fines de lucro que proporciona aprendizaje experiencial al aire libre, con el objetivo de transformar la educación de las ciencias para los estudiantes en comunidades más desatendidas.

This laboratory exercise explores the topographic signature of fluvial and glacial landscapes in different tectonic environments. Students develop a list of mountain ranges around the world to explore, then extract topographic data from 90-meter SRTM DEMs, and develop a series of hypsometric curves for each range. Each student works on a single range, but as a class we build up a database of 10-15 ranges around the world. The hypsometric curves are compared with each other and with published curves to look for signals of fluvial incision vs. glacial erosion in the landscapes.

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, scientists investigate how farming along the Mississippi River impacts floods and what can be done about it.

This article provides science content knowledge about forces that shape the Earth's surface: erosion by wind, water, and ice, volcanoes, earthquakes, and plate tectonics and how these forces affect Earth's polar regions.

This video segment from Nature describes how glaciers eroded the bedrock of IrelandŒë_í_Œ_ landscape.

Students will explore the components of soil and make a model of sedimentary rock layers and fossil fuels.

The Fourth Grade Elementary Framework for Science and Integrated Subjects, What Happened at Dry Falls?, uses the phenomena of a local Washington landform to explore erosion from the Ice Age Floods.  It is part of Elementary Framework for Science and Integrated Subjects project, a statewide Clime Time collaboration among ESD 123, ESD 105, North Central ESD, and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Development of the resources is in response to a need for research- based science lessons for elementary teachers that are integrated with English language arts, mathematics and other subjects such as social studies. The template for Elementary Science and Integrated Subjects  can serve as an organized, coherent and research-based roadmap for teachers in the development of their own NGSS aligned science lessons.  Lessons can also be useful for classrooms that have no adopted curriculum as well as to serve as enhancements for  current science curriculum. The EFSIS project brings together grade level teams of teachers to develop lessons or suites of lessons that are 1) pnenomena based, focused on grade level Performance Expectations, and 2) leverage ELA and Mathematics Washington State Learning Standards.

In this sixth grade science lesson, students will learn the main components of soil and discuss how soil is created in nature as well as how we can conserve it in the garden.

This video segment from NatureScene examines the landforms of Death Valley and how they came to be.

In this video from Nature, learn about the many different features and effects of glaciers in Ireland.

Using a glacier proxy, students design an experiment to connect glacial erosion with glacial flow. Students choose from a variety of materials, determined what question they want their experiment or experiments to answer, design the procedure, test the experiment, and write up a lab report on the experiment.

This hands-on activity explores five different forms of erosion (chemical, water, wind, glacier and temperature). Students rotate through stations and model each type of erosion on rocks, soils and minerals. The students record their observations and discuss the effects of erosion on the Earth's landscape. Students learn about how engineers are involved in the protection of landscapes and structures from erosion. Math problems are included to help students think about the effects of erosion in real-world scenarios.

In this video segment adapted from Spanner Films, visit the Alaska Native village of Shishmaref, and learn how an entire town may be forced to relocate because of warmer temperatures, melting sea ice, and coastal erosion.

This video segment adapted from NOVA features the youngest rock formations in the Grand Canyon, lava dams, and how they are subject to the eroding power of water.

This article highlights hands-on or multimedia lesson plans about glaciers. Science lessons are paired with suggested literacy lesson plans. All lessons are aligned to national standards.