CONSTRUCTIVE AND
DESTRUCTIVE PROCESSES
K – 5 Science Endorsement Unit Presentation
Goals of the Teaching Unit
Concepts that will be targeted in this lesson plan
• The Earth is constantly changing.
• The Earth’s landforms were created by weathering and erosion.
Essential Questions for this lesson plan:
• How do weathering and erosion affect the Earth’s landforms?
• Are weathering and erosion constructive or destructive?
Standards Addressed
Georgia Performance Standards
• S5E1a Constructive Processes
Identify surface features caused by constructive
processes
• S5E1b Destructive Processes
Identify and find examples of surface features
caused by destructive processes.
Lessons to Develop Big Idea
• UNIT PRE-ASSESSMENT: Student will sort a list of processes found on the board into one of three
categories: constructive, destructive, or both.
• ENGAGE: Pass out pictures of the Grand Canyon (several views per table, all same pics per table)
and the Grand Canyon Student Page. Have students work in teams and discuss and answer the
questions on the Grand Canyon Student page.
• EXPLORE: Use non-fiction text on the Grand Canyon to introduce the formation of the Grand
Canyon. Then students will complete in groups the Wind and Water Checkpoint Labs A – D (From
Picture Perfect Science Lessons).
• EXPLAIN: Students will make vocabulary connections using their lab results and the remainder of the
non-fiction text.
• EXTEND: Students will sort pictures of other landforms into weathering or erosion using new
knowledge from text and from labs.. Then students will work in groups to create a brochure on the
Grand Canyon with focus on how weathering and erosion have impacted its development.
• EVALUATE: Students will create a brochure to demonstrate what they learned about weathering and
erosion and how the concepts can be applied to the formation of the Grand Canyon
Addressing Misconceptions
Misconceptions:
• Changes to the Earth’s surface only happen quickly
• Weathering and erosion are the same thing
• Rocks are here to stay
• Earth’s forces can only destroy
Truths
• Changes to the Earth’s surface can happen fast or slow (addressed in non-fiction reading)
• Weathering and erosion are both processes that change the Earth’s surface, but weathering is the
process of breaking rock into sediment while erosion is the process of carrying that sediment away
(addressed in labs)
• Rocks are subject to weathering, destructive processes and the rock cycle (addressed in labs and
non-fiction reading)
• Earth’s forces can be constructive, destructive, or both (addressed in reading, discussion, and later
in unit)
Cross-Curricular Integration
• Literacy: Reading two non-fiction texts to support
science standards and address text features of the
books while introducing or using them in accessing
information
• Technology: Students will create brochures on
Microsoft Publisher
• Social Studies: showing the Grand Canyon’s surface
feature changes over three decades; explain what
decade means
• Math: folding sheet into thirds, discuss what thirds are
while folding occurs, what things come in thirds
Unit Assessments
• Pre-assessment: the unit pre-assessment will be the
Earth’s processes sort to determine where students
are in the understanding of what constructive and
destructive processes are.
• FA: New Vocabulary Words sheet will assess
student’s pre and post knowledge of vocabulary.
• FA: Correcting or adding more detail to the
questions originally asked on the Grand Canyon
Student page.
• SA: Grand Canyon brochure will assess how
students apply weathering and erosion to the
formation of the Grand Canyon, as well as changes
that may occur every day in the Grand Canyon as
a result of weathering and erosion.
Links to Materials and Assessments
• 5 E Model Lesson Plan for days 1 – 6
• Materials found in Picture Perfect Science Lessons by Karen Rohrich Ansberry and Emily
Morgan
• Show Grand Canyon’s surface changes over 3 decades via satellite:
http://world.time.com/timelapse/
• Weathering and Erosion Rap:
http://vcms.hmcharterschool.org/video/Weathering%252C-Erosion%252C-DepositionSong/dbbb52480b23443936a8b9c917e70dbf
• Real pictures of landforms affected by erosion:
http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/visualizations/es1205/es
1205page01.cfm