Landform Formations

taught a lesson on the causes of landforms.  I introduced a scenario and students were required to work in groups to create the procedure for demonstrating how different landforms are formed.  Students were shown a PowerPoint presentation of different landforms and were required to take notes.  This process took a long time because students were more excited to share what they saw rather than writing it down in their notebooks.  I noticed that students were not capable of writing notes on the slides.  They needed some type of graphic organizer to keep them focused and structured.  

On the next day, students were given a list of vocabulary words to define.  They created a three column chart in their notebooks labeled word, group definition, and class definition.  In groups, students discussed the definition of the vocabulary word, which was some type of landform.  There was a friendly debate in one group about a beach, if it is always near an ocean, and if the slope of the sand had anything to do with the water movement.  I enjoyed listening to this conversation because it gave me insight into each student's prior knowledge and how new information can be learned by connecting to old information.  Then we had a great classroom discussion and added to or took away from group definitions to create classroom definitions.  For morning work the next day, students used these class definitions to record on their vocabulary worksheets.

The hands-on activity was the most exciting for the students.  They enjoyed making the landforms and were surprised to find out that the five-minute activity represented one million years of erosion by flowing water.

On the fourth day, students read a short article on rivers and controlling the flow of water.  In this activity, students learned about rivers, the source of rivers, into where rivers empty, different parts, and the landforms caused by the flow of water.  Students used a graphic organizer to take notes.  This activity went much better than the one with the slides.  When finished, students were amazed to learn that water forms many of the landforms and not wind like they originally thought.

Implementing a structured inquiry lesson for this activity gave students the ability to work with others in a group and discuss procedures for the investigation.  Students were very engaged in the hands-on activity and contributed to rich discussions about the different landforms.  After the hands-on activity, we revisited the drawing of the stream table that the students did in their notebooks and labeled the different landforms we observed.  Students were able to think independently, share with their group members, and then share with the class.  Through this lesson, misconceptions were cleared about what caused the formation of the different landforms.  Most students thought it was wind, but later realized it was actually water.