Classroom Resource

Weathering and Erosion StudyJam

Subject Area

Science

Grade(s)

2, 4, 6

Overview

Weathering and erosion are continuous processes that gradually change the natural environment over time. Weathering is the process of wearing down materials into the sediment. Erosion occurs when this sediment is moved.

The classroom resource provides a video that will describe how weathering and erosion shape Earth's surface over a long period of time. There is also a short test that can be used to assess students' understanding.

Science (2015) Grade(s): 2

SC15.2.8

Make observations from media to obtain information about Earth’s events that happen over a short period of time (e.g., tornados, volcanic explosions, earthquakes) or over a time period longer than one can observe (e.g., erosion of rocks, melting of glaciers).

Unpacked Content

UP:SC15.2.8

Vocabulary

  • Earth events/natural phenomena
  • Earthquake
  • Flood
  • Tornado
  • Volcanic explosions
  • Glaciers
  • Erosion
  • Landslides
  • Weathering

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Earth events and the results of those events may occur slowly or rapidly.
  • Some events are much longer than can be observed.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Make observations and obtain information from multiple sources to provide evidence about Earth events.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Eart's events may change the Earth slowly or rapidly.

Scientific and Engineering Practices

Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information

Crosscutting Concepts

Stability and Change
Science (2015) Grade(s): 4

SC15.4.14

Explore information to support the claim that landforms are the result of a combination of constructive forces, including crustal deformation, volcanic eruptions, and sediment deposition as well as a result of destructive forces, including erosion and weathering.

Unpacked Content

UP:SC15.4.14

Vocabulary

  • landform
  • crustal deformation
  • sediment
  • deposition
  • erosion
  • weathering
  • topography
  • volcanoes
  • earthquakes
  • continental boundaries
  • trenches
  • ocean floor structures
  • constructive forces
  • destructive forces
  • eruption
  • geological processes

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Continents and other landforms are continually being shaped and reshaped by competing constructive and destructive geological processes.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Compare and/or combine information across complex texts and/or other reliable sources to support the claim that landforms are the result of both constructive and destructive forces.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Changes in Earth's surface are caused by both constructive and destructive forces.

Scientific and Engineering Practices

Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information

Crosscutting Concepts

Cause and Effect
Science (2015) Grade(s): 6

SC15.6.5

Use evidence to explain how different geologic processes shape Earth’s history over widely varying scales of space and time (e.g., chemical and physical erosion; tectonic plate processes; volcanic eruptions; meteor impacts; regional geographical features, including Alabama fault lines, Rickwood Caverns, and Wetumpka Impact Crater).

Unpacked Content

UP:SC15.6.5

Vocabulary

  • Evidence
  • Geology
  • Geologic process
  • Scale
  • System
  • Microscopic
  • Global
  • Time scale
  • Spatial scale
  • Uplift
  • Landslide
  • Geochemical reaction
  • Earthquake
  • Catastrophic event
  • Composition
  • Property
  • Deposition
  • Sediment
  • Surface features
  • Underground formations
  • Erosion
  • Chemical erosion
  • Physical erosion
  • Tectonic plates
  • Tectonic plate processes
  • Continent
  • Continental drift theory
  • Volcano
  • Volcanic eruption
  • Meteor
  • Meteor impact
  • Impact crater
  • Weathering
  • Fault line
  • Cavern

Knowledge

Students:
  • The planet's systems interact over scales that range from microscopic to global in size, and they operate over fractions of a second to billions of years. These interactions have shaped Earth's history and will determine its future.
  • Processes change Earth's surface at time and spatial scales that can be large (such as slow plate motions or the uplift of large mountain ranges) or small (such as rapid landslides or microscopic geochemical reactions).
  • Many geologic processes that change Earth's features (such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and meteor impacts) usually behave gradually but are punctuated by catastrophic events.
  • The composition of Earth's layers and their properties affect the surface of Earth.
  • Geologic processes that have changed Earth's features include events like surface weathering, erosion, and deposition by the movements of water, ice, and wind.
  • Surface weathering, erosion, movement, and the deposition of sediment range from large to microscopic scales (e.g., sediment consisting of boulders and microscopic grains of sand, raindrops dissolving microscopic amounts of minerals).
  • Water's movements—both on the land and underground—cause weathering and erosion, which change the land's surface features and create underground formations.
  • The motion of the Earth's plates produces changes on a planetary scale over a range of time periods from millions to billions of years. Evidence for the motion of plates can explain large-scale features of the Earth's surface (e.g., mountains, distribution of continents) and how they change.
  • Catastrophic changes can modify or create surface features over a very short period of time compared to other geologic processes, and the results of those catastrophic changes are subject to further changes over time by processes that act on longer time scales (e.g., erosion of a meteor crater).

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Articulate a statement that relates a given phenomenon to a scientific idea, including that geologic processes have shaped the Earth's history over widely varying scales of space and time.
  • Identify the corresponding timescales for each identified geoscience process.
  • Identify and use multiple valid and reliable sources of evidence to construct an explanation that changes occur on very large or small spatial and/or temporal scales.
  • Use reasoning to connect the evidence and support an explanation for how geologic processes have changed the Earth's surface at a variety of temporal and spatial scales.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • The planet's systems interact over scales that range from microscopic to global in size, and they operate over fractions of a second to billions of years. These interactions have shaped Earth's history and will determine its future.
  • A given surface feature is the result of a broad range of geoscience processes occurring at different temporal and spatial scales.
  • Surface features will continue to change in the future as geoscience processes continue to occur.

Scientific and Engineering Practices

Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions

Crosscutting Concepts

Scale, Proportion, and Quantity
Link to Resource
https://studyjams.scholastic.com/studyjams/jams/science/rocks-minerals-landform…

CR Resource Type

Audio/Video

Resource Provider

Other

Resource Provider other

http://studyjams.scholastic.com/
Accessibility
License

License Type

CUSTOM

Custom License Type (URL)

http://www.scholastic.com/terms.htm

Comments or Notes

The test may be completed as a whole group or independently on student devices. 

Approved Date

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