Play, Debrief, Replay Lesson: Water Erosion Subject: Science Grade 4

Allison de Hoop; Feb. 2012

Time: 30-40 min

Outcomes: RM4.3 Analyze how weathering, erosion, and fossils provide evidence to support human understanding of the formation of landforms on Earth. Indicators: e. Design and construct a prototype of a system for minimizing and controlling gravitational, water, shoreline, ice, or wind erosion in a given situation. f. Evaluate both a prototype of a personally constructed system for minimizing and controlling erosion and the use of prototypes in science for modeling natural phenomena. CCC: Developing Thinking; Developing Social Responsibility SK Curriculum Science Context: Scientific Inquiry Materials: Outdoor water supply, containers to carry water, various rocks/pebbles, soil, grassy areas, sandy area (school playground in a low traffic area), Shovels/spoons/etc, recyclable materials such as cardboard, plastic cups, etc. PLAY 1) Students (in groups) will create a river in the sand of the playground. There must be a starting point where the water will be poured and, there must be at least one bend in the river. 2) Pour water in the starting point and watch the river. Do this at least 10 times (some groups will do more). Make observations each time. What changes? DEBRIEF 3) Questions: What happened to your river as time, repetitions, went on? Why? What did this? What happened at the bend in your river? What could be done to stop this (erosion)? REPLAY 4) Challenge children to make another river and repeat the same number of repetitions. This time they should try to slow or stop the erosion that happens to their rivers. Provide rocks/other types of soil/areas where there is vegetation such as grass. Students should make their observations again after each repetition (at least 10). DEBRIEF (2) 5) Pretend this is a life-size version of a river. What do you think happens over time? Is this a bad thing, why/why not? What could engineers/scientists do to combat erosion?

Student Assessment: Did students accurately describe their observations? Did students actively engage in debrief questions? Did students change something when they experimented a second time? Teacher Reflective Questions: Play: 1. Does the lesson plan facilitate inquiry in this stage? Students will see that changes occur, and will be looking for changes, in their initial play. This will turn into full inquiry during the debrief. 2. Were the students provided with a variety of tools to manipulate? In this first section students are generally encouraged to make observations. More tools and materials are provided for the Replay. Debrief: 1. Are there appropriate questions to guide student discovery and promote critical thinking? There is a question to promote critical thinking when students are asked to thing in life-size. Also the challenge for Replay facilitates critical/creative thinking. 2. Do the questions allow for meaningful conclusions to be drawn? Yes, the questions prompt the debriefing session, but are also open enough for children to add their own additional findings. Replay: 1. Do the materials that are provided give the students the opportunity to make new discoveries in this stage? There are a variety of materials for students to use. Students may need to be prompted to try to build their river in a grassy or weedy area to discover how vegetation can prevent erosion. 2. Does the replay stage in this lesson encourage further discovery in this area compared to the play stage? Yes, students are specifically given a challenge to encourage further discovery.