Make Your Own Erosion! - #sciencegoals

Contributor
Patreon SciShow Kids
Type Category
Instructional Materials
Types
Animation/Movie , Experiment/Lab Activity
Note
This resource, vetted by NSTA curators, is provided to teachers along with suggested modifications to make it more in line with the vision of the NGSS. While not considered to be “fully aligned,” the resources and expert recommendations provide teachers with concrete examples and expert guidance using the EQuIP rubric to adapted existing resources. Read more here.

Reviews

Description

The short video from Sci Show Kids details an investigation about erosion. The video supports the use of evidence related to the claim that erosion has occurred. The resource also presents ideas for further questions students might engage in using the same investigation format.

Intended Audience

Educator and learner
Educational Level
  • Early Elementary
Language
English
Access Restrictions

Free access - The right to view and/or download material without financial, registration, or excessive advertising barriers.

Performance Expectations

2-ESS2-1 Compare multiple solutions designed to slow or prevent wind or water from changing the shape of the land.

Clarification Statement: Examples of solutions could include different designs of dikes and windbreaks to hold back wind and water, and different designs for using shrubs, grass, and trees to hold back the land.

Assessment Boundary: none

This resource was not designed to build towards this performance expectation, but can be used to build towards it using the suggestions provided below.

Comments about Including the Performance Expectation
The video supports an investigation that could easily lead to students asking questions, leading to the Performance Expectation. This resource supports students in engaging in an investigation about erosion using a plastic tub, soil and/or sand, and then dripping water on a “landscape”. After investigation, the narrator asks for evidence that erosion has occurred and asks follow-up questions that students might investigate. For example, she asks, “What would happen if the water came out fast?” and “Would more erosion occur if the slope were steeper?”. Students will need support to meet the full Performance Expectation explicitly by using the video and the investigation to explore exactly what erosion is and by asking questions about preventing erosion in different ways.

Science and Engineering Practices

This resource was not designed to build towards this science and engineering practice, but can be used to build towards it using the suggestions provided below.

Comments about Including the Science and Engineering Practice
The resource shows the natural event as a phenomenon, not as an engineering problem. The teacher would need to reframe the phenomenon as a problem to solve to address this Practice (e.g., Is there any way to make less erosion happen here? What ideas do you have?). One might consider to present a house or a person on the “landscape” and have students try to keep the house in place or to not “drown” the person.

This resource was not designed to build towards this science and engineering practice, but can be used to build towards it using the suggestions provided below.

Comments about Including the Science and Engineering Practice
The students would benefit participating in the investigation as a hands-on activity as well as watching the video. In addition, students might collect data and video the results to aid in the collecting and recording of the data (e.g., how the shape of the land changed).

Disciplinary Core Ideas

This resource was not designed to build towards this disciplinary core idea, but can be used to build towards it using the suggestions provided below.

Comments about Including the Disciplinary Core Idea
The teacher would need to support students in describing the shape of the land before and after the water event to reach the Disciplinary Core Idea. Drawings or pictures could be used for support. The focus on the shape of the land is included in the video, but not as a primary focus. The teacher would also need to support students in some of the integral vocabulary to discuss land shapes (e.g., slope, flat, hill, cliff, steep). Also, it might benefit the students’ understanding to repeat the “rain” event more than once to support the idea that change in the land often happens over long periods of time.

Crosscutting Concepts

This resource was not designed to build towards this crosscutting concept, but can be used to build towards it using the suggestions provided below.

Comments about Including the Crosscutting Concept
Students will need to repeat the investigation with the Crosscutting Concept in mind to understand the rate of change and compare the difference between fast moving water and slow moving water on the “landscape”.

Resource Quality

  • Alignment to the Dimensions of the NGSS: The video and the investigation that is portrayed is the “phenomenon version” of the three dimensions, not the engineering version. Hence, the teacher would have to modify the investigation to focused on an engineering problem. If used with the suggestions within this curated description, the Performance Expectation could be fully addressed. The video makes a connection to authentic, real-world phenomena (the beach, the white cliffs of Dover, The Grand Canyon). This connection is not explicit in terms of what students must do with the phenomenon in the investigation. The teacher needs to circle back to real-world phenomenon the students may have encountered in their own experiences to build these real-world connections. Finally, scientists do use models such as the one in the investigation, therefore the application is authentic and steeped in real-world practice in STEM in career and community.

  • Instructional Supports: The video details the entire sequence for the investigation and models the search for evidence that erosion has occurred. There are no explicit supports for special education or ESL, but the multimodality of the resources and investigation would support comprehension. Teachers could support the claims based on evidence by stopping the video at the questions asked by the narrator and listing some of the sources of evidence. Also, students might conduct the investigation and search for similar data to support the claim that erosion has occurred.

  • Monitoring Student Progress: If used as suggested, adding the tips to the larger lesson, the teacher would be able to support student groups in asking their own questions, planning investigations and gathering evidence. The teacher would be able to assess the Performance Expectation as informal assessment.

  • Quality of Technological Interactivity: The video quality is good, but the rate of talk might seem fast for some students. The video would be enhanced by clearer close-ups, and slow motion video of the erosion event.