Land and Water
Lesson 15
Planning Our Homesites: Designing and Building a Landscape
Using scientifically gathered information from the previous lessons, students will design a landscape suitable for a home.
3. Lesson set up and Management
INQB: Scientists plan and conduct different kinds of investigations, depending on the questions they are trying to answer.
INQF: A scientific model is a simplified representation of an object, event, system, or process created to understand some aspect of the natural world.
APPA: Technology involves changing the natural world to meet human needs or wants.
APPD: Scientists and engineers often work in teams with other individuals to generate different ideas for solving a problem.
APPE: Possible solutions should be tested to see if they solve the problem. Building a model or prototype is one way to test a possible solution.
ES2C: Erosion is the movement of Earth materials by processes such as wind, water, ice, and gravity
- Students will solve the problem of where to put a "home" in their stream table model.
- Students will apply knowledge of erosion from other lessons to solve the problem.
3. Lesson set up and Management
Materials:
- Students may need more sand; make sure it is moist and ready for student use (see Teacher’s Edition page 33 #7).
Student Management:
- Have each student make a drawing of their group's stream table as suggested on Record Sheet 15-A. However, have students record on the drawing or in their science notebooks why each change would help limit erosion. Encourage students to write the lesson number that inspired that change on the stream table OR use the supplemental Record Sheet 15-A Part A: Plan your Landscape.
- Did the students hold true to their plan and their plan diagram? Did they record the changes on their Plan Diagram?
- Consider combining Lessons 15 and 16. If students create a dam or terrace their project, sometimes these landscape features "fall apart" before the students run water through their stream table and record the results. If you are going to have families come to watch (See Preparation note on page 185), just schedule the test for near the end of the day.
- OR have the student just designing their landscape without building it on the first day (Record Sheet 15-A Part A and the drawing on the next page) and build the landscape and run water through it on the second day.
- Due to the length of this lesson, you may want to have the students reflect and record in their journals the following day. However, it is very important that students reflect on what happened and record those ideas in their journals.
- One of the goals should be to have the students apply the knowledge from the previous lessons. Many students will just want to "do things" without a scientifically based reason.
- Consider doing this lesson using the stages in the "Design/Application Process."
- Define the problem: "Design a landscape that minimizes erosion."
- Scientifically gather information and/or collect measured data: Have the students review their results from the other lessons. Have them look at the diagrams in their science notebooks and the “Big Book of Streams.”
- Explore ideas. Have the student groups brainstorm a list of things they could try to make the landscape minimize erosion.
- Summarize the plan: Have the students summarize the features they are going to use in their stream table in a few sentences.
- List steps to do the plan: Have the teams list the steps for building their modified stream table.
- Diagram the solution: Have the students draw a diagram of their modified stream table. Have them label all the features they are adding. Also, have them label the different centimeter cubes with the name of the team member.
- Scientifically test the solution: The class should plan how they will test to see if the modified landscape minimizes erosion. A possible test suggestion: "the modified landscape is successful if all homesites (centimeter cubes) were not moved/disturbed while 2 liters of water were poured into the stream table." It is helpful to plan the test prior to the Exploring Ideas stage.
Writing Support:
- Glue the Record Sheet 15-A page 1 in their science notebooks.
- OR if doing this lesson as the "Design/Application Process," have the students write the "Design/Application Process" stages in their science notebooks
Math Support:
- Have the students record the volumetric measurement or the weight of the materials that are being added to their stream table model. Record this information in the science notebook.