Land and Water
Lesson 16
Protecting Our Homesites: Testing the Interactions of Land and Water
Student will test to see if their modified landscape minimizes erosion. Students will also discuss how this unit applies to their world.
3. Lesson set up and Management
INQB: Scientists plan and conduct different kinds of investigations, depending on the questions they are trying to answer.
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.
APPF: Solutions to problems must be communicated, if the problem is to be solved.
- Students will test to see if their landscape minimizes erosion.
- Students will test to see if they chose a good homesite.
- Student will discuss how their model stream table applies to their world.
3. Lesson set up and Management
Materials:
- Food coloring in water is not necessary.
- Consider combining this lesson with Lesson 15. It is difficult to build the modified landscapes and then have them set for more than a day successfully. The modified landscapes tend to fall apart and need to be rebuilt if more than a day elapses between building the landscape and testing them.
Student Management:
- Make sure the students plan out their homesite before doing it. Also, encourage the students to use the knowledge from the previous lessons to solve the problems. This is an "analysis and thinking process" versus "guess and check."
- Combine this lesson with Lesson 15.
- Have each group describe to the rest of the class why they made the homesite the way they did. Have them support their ideas with examples from the other lessons.
- Have each group, one at a time, pour the water into the model so everyone can watch the results.
- Consider taking a digital photograph of the stream table before and after the water is added, print them for the students to add to their science notebooks.
- Discuss with the students about applying knowledge from previous lessons. If a landscape is not successful and some of the homesites are moved, what concept(s) needs to be reconsidered?
Writing Support:
- Prior to pouring in the water, have the group record in their science notebook why certain things where done in their stream table. Have them note the lesson that supports their thinking.
Change to the model
Why
Lesson
Example: add gravel near stream head
Slows down water
2
- Have the students write the results of the test. Have them reflect on why certain aspects of their homesite worked or didn't work.
Reading Support:
- As a pre-reading activity, have students pretend that they are an architect, what would be some feature that they would want in a dream home. Read the selection, "Fallingwater: Wright on!" Discuss the author's purpose for writing this selection.
Math Support:
- When testing the solution, have the students record the total volume of water poured into the stream table before the house (centimeter cubes) moved.