Weathering

Learning Resource Type

Learning Activity

Subject Area

Science

Grade(s)

9, 10, 11, 12

Overview

The student will watch a video about "Weathering" using Edpuzzle. The students will be assigned this video in Google Classroom. The students will use their knowledge to complete the weathering lab activity.

EdPuzzle is the perfect tool for allowing students to watch and engage with videos while the teacher gathers data throughout the lesson. As teachers dabble into the flipped classroom philosophy, EdPuzzle is the perfect enhancement tool for videos to be watched at home instead of eating up valuable class time.

Google Classroom is a free web service developed by Google for schools that aim to simplify creating, distributing, and grading assignments in a paperless way. The primary purpose of Google Classroom is to streamline the process of sharing files between teachers and students.

This activity was created as a result of the ALEX Resource Development Summit.

Phase

During/Explore/Explain
Science (2015) Grade(s): 09-12 - Earth and Space Science

SC15.ESS.9

Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to explain how constructive and destructive processes (e.g., weathering, erosion, volcanism, orogeny, plate tectonics, tectonic uplift) shape Earth’s land features (e.g., mountains, valleys, plateaus) and sea features (e.g., trenches, ridges, seamounts).

UP:SC15.ESS.9

Vocabulary

Students:
  • From a given explanation, identify the claims, the evidence and the reasoning that will require evaluation.
  • Based on evidence, evaluate the mode and ease with which energy moves from one Earth system to another.
  • Evaluate explanations for changes in Earth's mean temperature via changes in the energy budget of Earth's systems.
  • Research and compile a set of explanations both supporting and disavowing the impact of human activities on the increase of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Plate movements are responsible for most continental and ocean-floor features and for the distribution of most rocks and minerals within Earth's crust.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Develop the claim based on evidence that constructive and destructive processes shape Earth's land features.
  • Identify and describe evidence supporting the claim, such as specific internal processes like volcanism, mountain building or tectonic uplift as causal agents in building up Earth's surface over time; specific surface processes, like weathering and erosion as causal agents in wearing down Earth's surface over time.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • The appearance of land features and sea-floor features are a result of both constructive forces and destructive mechanisms.
  • Earth's systems, being dynamic and interacting, cause feedback effects that can increase or decrease the original changes.

Scientific and Engineering Practices

Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information

Crosscutting Concepts

Stability and Change

Learning Objectives

Students should be able to explain the concept of weathering and determine the factors affect the rate of weathering.

Activity Details

The students will watch an EdPuzzle video about Weathering. The teacher can share the link via Google Classroom if desired. 

The students will complete a weathering lab in the chemistry, biology, or physics lab or science classroom.

Weathering with Chalk Handout

Chalk is a type of limestone made of the shells of tiny organisms. When you write your name on the chalkboard or draw a picture on the driveway with a piece of chalk what happens to the chalk?  It is mechanically weathered. This experiment will help you understand how chalk can be chemically weathered.

Assessment Strategies

The students will complete a 3-2-1 essay that includes three things they learned about weathering, two factors that affect the rate of weathering, and one example of weathering.

Variation Tips

The teacher may use any other Edpuzzle video related to weathering or may edit the video to insert questions related to the video.

Background / Preparation

The teacher will need to make copies of the handout.

The teacher will need to create a free Edpuzzle and Google Classroom account.

The teacher will need to reserve a science lab at their school if they can not complete the lab in the classroom.

The teacher will need to purchase the materials needed to complete this lab. All labs should have a variety of beakers on hand.

Materials

  • (2) 50-150 ml beakers
  • (2) plastic cups
  • 2 small pieces of chalk (or 1 larger piece of chalk to be broken in 2.)
  • 50 ml of vinegar
  • 50 ml of water
ALSDE LOGO