Reflection of Erosion Lesson

            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.  

Wind Erosion

Water Erosion

Glacier Erosion