I implemented a lesson on three different types of
erosion. The lesson was intended for
fourth grade students, but since school is not in session, I gathered
school-aged children from my neighborhood.
This presented some challenges, but the use of models was extremely
helpful in the understanding of erosion.
If I were to teach this lesson again, I would use more scaffolding to
reach the younger students.
I taught
this lesson to two school-aged children, aged 7 and 9 years old. At the beginning of the lesson, I noticed the
students had never heard of erosion.
There did not know what is was, or how it changed the earth’s
surface. I began the lesson by talking
about how the earth may change. Students
were eager to answer how the earth changes by earthquakes, or volcanoes, but
mentioned that they had never seen it before.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, I used Google to pull up pictures
of volcanoes, earthquakes, and the devastation afterwards. They immediately noticed how this may change
the way the earth’s surface looked.
After
discussion how the earth quickly the earth my change due to volcanoes and
earthquakes, I introduced erosion. These
two students had never heard of erosion, so I defined it while they recorded
the definition. They were not aware of
any examples of erosion, so I took them outside to show them one. It rained the previous night. Outside were two drainage pipes on either
side of the porch. Under the pipes were
big ditches where the soil had been carried away by the rain. I asked them what came out of the pipes and
when did it occur. I then asked them to
examine the ditch and think about what may have happened to cause this. They answered by saying the rain took the
dirt away, so I connected this example with the definition of erosion.
The use of
the three models of each type of erosion was essential to the lesson. Since they had not been exposed to erosion,
they needed a concrete representation of the concept. At the first station, wind erosion, they
immediately made the connection between the model and the real world. It was easy for them to refer to examples of
erosion at the beach when the wind blows.
The second station, water erosion, was interesting because the coins
were hidden in the mountain of soil. When
they were exposed, the younger student asked where they had come from. I allowed the students to discuss the
possibilities and then the younger student realized they had been there all
along, but they were just buried in the soil.
They quickly made the connection between water erosion and the example I
showed them at the beginning of the lesson.
They also knew that water erosion happened at the beach when the ocean
carried sand. These students showed
evidence of understanding by connecting to erosion in the real world.
The third
station, glacier erosion, was more difficult for the students to connect
to. They have not seen glaciers or large
chunks of ice in our area. After the
students did the activity at the glacier station, they were not able to think
of any examples of glacier erosion in the real world. For the sake of time, I showed them the book
from Big Universe that they were supposed to read and allowed them to scan the
book. They were then able to make the
connection from glaciers to the movie Ice Age.
Without the use of models to give student hands-on experience, they
would not have been able to understand erosion.
Because it
is the summer break and school is not in session, I was not able to teach this
lesson to a specific age group. I think
the younger student was not at the appropriate level to fully understand how
erosion shapes the earth in the time allotted.
In the future, I would teach this lesson to either fourth or fifth grade
students only. Initially, I thought this
lesson would take about an hour, but it took longer than expected. Due to time restraints, I was not able teach
the entire lesson. The students were
able to rotate through all stations, but they did not read the book in it
entirety, nor was I able to check for understanding through a making meaning
conference. If I were to teach this
lesson again, it would probably take two class periods. I would probably add an example photograph of
each type of erosion at the stations, so students would already have an example
to refer to.
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| Wind Erosion |
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| Water Erosion |
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| Glacier Erosion |
