Educational Materials
DIY Experiments Children's music about Earth Science
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Discussion Ask your class, "Where does rain come from?" and "How does it get into the sky?" Discuss the Water Cycle. You may wish to use the books: What makes it rain?, or Water: What it is, what it does. See bibliography Experiment Materials needed:
Method:
Conclusions:
The Saturated Zone: Make your own Aquifer Prior to doing this demonstration you will need to discuss with your group where water can be found. They will likely be able to name lakes, rivers and kitchen taps as sources of water. Using resource books such as Water for the World by Franklyn Branley (or other books you have available in the school library), introduce the concept of ground water. Talk about how people who live in the country get their water from wells which are drilled into the aquifer. To make an aquifer, you will need:
Group Discussion: Initiate a group discussion about water pollution by asking your class:
Try this group problem solving activity: Water Pollution Solution Gather some leaves, grass, stones, paper scraps and some cooking oil.
When the groups are finished, ask a spokesperson from each group to tell the class what their group dumped into the water, and how they attempted to clean the water. How successful were they at getting the water clean? Were some materials harder to remove than others? Is it better to prevent pollution or to clean up water that has already been polluted?
Erosion Experiments Set up a sandbox or sand table environment in which you have made mountains of sand, clay and rocks.
Ask the children to describe the shape and size of the mountains. Provide measuring instruments (rulers and measuring tape or string). Ask the children to measure the height, width and circumference of each mound. Record their observations and measurements. Encourage the children to predict what changes will occur when water is poured on the different materials. As the children pour water on the mound, ask "Which mounds are affected by water? Why?" Compare their predictions to what actually happened. Take new measurements of the mounds and record these on a chart. Weathering Rocks After the children have recieved information about the effects of heat, ice, wind and rain on rocks, you may wish to try these experiements. 1 - Place several kinds of small rocks on a hot plate for ten minutes or longer.
Which types of rocks (sedimentary, igneous or metamorphic) reacted the most to temperature changes? Make a volcano Volcanoes are mountain formations that form along cracks in the earth's crust. Hot liquid rock (magma), gas and steam come up through the cracks in the earth's crust. This boiling mixture erupts through vents in the volcano and spills out onto the earth's surface. Materials needed: -a large plastic cardboard box, top removed.
Method: 1 - form a mountain of damp sand inside the box. Tip: make sure the sides of the box are deep enough to contain the runoff.
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