Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy
The Cognitive Process Dimension
Name: Susan Scott
Authentic Topic: Weathering and Erosion
Grade level: Fourth
Assignment
1.
Rename this file to include your last name at the beginning of the file name and include your approved authentic topic.
Example: Maxwell.ID-1Endangered Animals Activities
a. Create one or more activities (or objectives or assessments) for each of the 19 Cognitive Processes.
i. Each activity should stand on its’ own; i.e., do not build one activity from another activity or do not use information from one activity in
another activity.
ii. These should be written as prompts for students, not as objectives.
b. All activities must be about your approved authentic topic that you selected for your IDP.
NOTE: you will use one of the activities you design for the Analyze, Evaluate, or Create level to build your IDP lesson.
c. At least one activity at each of the Analyze, Evaluate, and Create levels must involve a technology project. Of course, you can use more.
Refer to the file, “Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy – Full Description”, for more information about each level and process.
Revised Bloom’s Levels
Cognitive
Processes
(Alternate
Names)
Definitions and
Examples
Objective, Activity, or Assessment
1. Remember: Retrieve relevant knowledge from long-term memory
1.1 Recognizing
(Identifying)
Location knowledge in long-term memory that is consistent
with presented material (e.g., Recognize the dates of
important events in U.S. history)

True or False: Weathering is a quick process.

1.2 Recalling
(Retrieving)
Retrieving relevant knowledge from long-term memory (e.g.,
Recall the dates of important events in U.S. history)

Circle an example of how to prevent erosion:
planting more trees or eliminating vegetation
List two examples of how to prevent erosion.

Name the largest and smallest type of sediment.
2. Understand: Construct meaning from instructional messages, including oral, written, and graphic
communication
Changing from one form of representation (e.g.,
numerical) to another (e.g., verbal) (e.g., Paraphrase
important speeches and documents)
Finding a specific example or illustration of a concept or
principle (e.g., Give examples of various artistic painting
styles)
Determining that something belongs to a category (e.g.,
Classify observed or described cases of mental disorders)

Paraphrase the story Cracking Up: A Story
About Erosion

Illustrate and sequence the mechanical
weathering of rock over time

2.2 Summarizing Abstracting a general theme or major point(s) (e.g., Write
(Abstracting,
a short summary of events portrayed on a videotape)
Generalizing)

Gather various rocks. Group them into three
categories: sedimentary, igneous and
metamorphic. Pay particular attention to
sedimentary rock and the formation of
sediment due to weathering and erosion.
Summarize the effects of erosion after reading
the excerpt from the Science text.
2.1 Interpreting
(Clarifying, Paraphrasing,
Representing, Translating)
2.2 Exemplifying
(Illustrating, Instantiating)
2.1 Classifying
(Categorizing,
Subsuming)

2.5 Inferring
(Concluding,
Extrapolation,
Interpolating, Predicting)
Drawing a logical conclusion from presented information
(e.g., In learning a foreign language, infer grammatical
principles from examples)

Summarize the two types of weathering after
viewing “Weathering” on Brainpop.
Based on what you know about erosion and
weathering, what type of rock would be the
most resistant to weathering and erosion?
What type of rock would be the least
resistant?

2.6 Comparing
(Contrasting, Mapping,
Matching)
Detecting correspondences between two ideas, objects,
and the like (e.g., Compare and contrast historical events
to contemporary situations)
2.7 Explaining
(Construction)
Construction a cause-and-effect model of a system (e.g.,
Determine how change, compromise, and culture
affected the journey of your chosen explorer; Explain the
causes of important 18th-century events in France)

The Colorado River flows through the bottom
of the Grand Canyon. Does the river cause
weathering or erosion? Explain.
Compare and contrast chemical and
mechanical weathering.


Contrast weathering and erosion
Explain the causes and effects of weathering
and erosion.

What caused the Grand Canyon to be formed?
3. Apply: Carry out or use a procedure in a given situation
3.1 Executing
(Carrying out)
3.2 Implementing
(Using)
Apply a procedure to a familiar task (e.g., When serving as
the cashier in the classroom store, count back change to the
customers when they pay you; When studying about alcohol
abuse, determine the difference in a man’s or woman’s
blood alcohol levels at three different weights and three
different amounts of alcohol consumed in one hour; Divide
one whole number by another whole number, both with
multiple digits)
Applying a procedure to an unfamiliar task (e.g., Use
persuasion techniques to create a multimedia presentation to
convince your principal to implement your recycling plan;
Use Newton’s Second Law in situations in which it is
appropriate)


Have each child have one gobstopper. (this is candy)
As they put the gobstopper in their mouth, tell the
students to imagine that the gobstopper is a rock. Their
teeth are like other rocks and their salvia is like water,
both breaking down the rock. Have students
summarize their experience with weathering rock using
the gobstopper.
Mechanical Weathering: Have students take two milk
cartons. Taken from the PBS website: “Have one
student fill a balloon with water until it is the size of a
ping-pong ball, and then tie a knot at the end. Have
another mix water with plaster of Paris; once the
mixture is as thick as yogurt, have him or her pour half
of the plaster in one milk carton and the other half in
the other. Have the student with the balloon push it
down into the plaster in one carton until the balloon is
about 1/4 inch under the surface. Have him or her hold
the balloon there until the plaster sets enough so that
the balloon does not rise to the surface. Let the plaster
harden for about 1 hour. Put both milk cartons in the
freezer overnight.” Next, have students predict what
they think will happen within the milk cartons.
(Answer: “Remove the plaster-filled milk containers
from the freezer. Ask students: what happened to the
plaster that contained the balloon? (It cracked.) What
happened to the plaster that had no balloon? (It did not
crack.) Why the difference? (The water in the balloon
expanded as it froze.) Explain that this is the same
process which occurs when water seeps into cracks in
rocks and freezes-a process called frost wedging.”)

Chemical Weathering: Ask students if they think that
temperature is a factor in chemical weathering? Tell
students that they will now be conducting an
experiment to determine how the rate of chemical
weathering might be affected in different climates
around the world. Divide the class into groups of 4-5
students. Have each group combine some ice and hot
water in an empty beaker until the temperature reaches
the 40-50° C range, at which point any remaining ice in
the beaker should be removed. Ideally, the total volume
in the beaker should be about 200ml,. Record the
temperature of the water on a chemical weathering
graphic organizer. Have one member of each group
start timing with a stopwatch at the moment another
group member drops an antacid tablet into the beaker.
Stop the stopwatch when the tablet has completely
dissolved and no traces of the tablet are visible. Record
the dissolving time in the organizer. Also record the
water temperature again; calculate the average
temperature during the experiment (i.e. add the starting
and final temperatures and divide by 2) and enter that
into the organizer. Empty the beaker (rinsing well to
get rid of any antacid remnants) and repeat the
experiment four more times, lowering the temperature
range each time by 10 degrees (i.e. round two of the
experiment should be 30-40° C, round three should be
20-30° C, and so on.) Adapted from PBS.org
4. Analyze: Break material into its constituent parts and determine how the parts relate to one another and to
an overall structure or purpose
Remember: If a student can “google” a question or prompt to find the answer OR if it only takes a few minutes
to answer a prompt, it is not higher-level thinking at the Analyze, Evaluate, or Create level.
4.1 Differentiation
(Discriminating,
Distinguishing,
Focusing,
Selecting)
4.2 Organizing (Finding
coherence, Integrating,
Outlining, Parsing,
Structuring)
Distinguishing relevant from irrelevant parts or
important parts of presented material; Differentiating is
different from the cognitive processes associated with
Understand because it involves structural organization
and, in particular, determining how the parts fit into the
overall structure or whole. (e.g., Research at least ten
different methods of protecting crops from insect pests.
Distinguish which are chemical or not and select the
two best methods to use in organic farming in
Kentucky. Justify your answer.)
Determine how elements fit or function within a
structure; Builds systematic and coherent connections
among pieces of relevant information; Occurs in
conjunction with Differentiating since the student first
identifies the relevant or important elements and then
determines or imposes an overall structure,
configuration, or arrangement on the content. (e.g.,
After studying about how to farm tilapia fish and how
to grow plants in water, determine how the elements of
these two systems can fit or function within one system



Research five possible solutions to lessen the
effects of erosion and weathering. Use a Prezi
presentation to illustrate possible solutions to
these issues.
After an experiment demonstrating the causes of
erosion and weathering on rocks, select the causes
that created the most damage to the rock. Select
reasons as to why you think they caused the most
damage. Organize your selections in a Prezi
presentation.
After studying weathering and erosion, determine
how glaciers caused both of these processes.

Agree or disagree with this statement: Every
natural landform on Earth has been effected by
weathering or erosion.

Determine if erosion or weathering has occurred
in your area. Using Slide Roll use pictures to
support or refute your claim.
4.3 Attributing
(Deconstructing)
to mutually benefit both the fish and the plants;
Structure evidence from the recent presidential election
into evidence to determine which political party will
probably win the next presidential election in four
years)
Determine a point of view, a bias, values, or intent
underlying presented material (e.g., Determine the point
of view of the author of an essay in terms of his or her
political perspective.)


Structure an argument to prove or disprove that
erosion and weathering has occurred in your area.
Using Slide Roll use pictures to support or refute
your claim.
Using Storybird, write a narrative story from the
point of view of a grain of sediment found at the
bottom of a gulley. Explain how the sediment
reached its place in the gulley using your
knowledge of the processes of erosion and
weathering.
5. Evaluate: Make judgments based on criteria and standards
5.1 Checking
(Coordinating,
Detecting,
Monitoring,
Testing)
5.2 Critiquing
(Judging)
Detecting inconsistencies or fallacies within a process or
product; determining whether a process or product has
external consistency; determining the effectiveness of a
procedure as it is being implemented (e.g., Determine if a
scientist’s conclusions follow from the raw data; Evaluate
another group’s business plan to determine whether the
productive resources (natural, human, and capital) were used
in the most effective manner and whether their product
reflects consumer demands.)
Determining inconsistencies between a product and external
criteria; determining whether a product has external
consistency (e.g., Judge which of two methods is the best
way to solve a problem given a set of external criteria; Create
a blog to present the inconsistencies of the debate on whether
or not organic food is better for people and the environment.
Use the USDA’s criteria for organic food classification as a
basis for your response. Give your personal conclusion and
justification.)

Determine whether the rate of erosion and weathering
is more affected by the amount of vegetation or the
angle of a downhill slope. Research the results of
others scientist. Using the scientific method, conduct
your own experiment to determine if your conclusions
were the same as the scientists. Report your findings
on a blog.

Several homeowners in Florida have discovered that
their house is located on top of a sinkhole. Often
times homeowners cannot afford to fix the sinkhole
and no one wants to buy a home knowing that it sits
on a sinkhole. Research sinkholes and their effects.
Who is responsible for fixing this damage? Should
the insurance companies provide more assistance
before it is too late? Provide arguments for both sides
and present your own conclusion. Use a wiki to
present your information.
There has been much debate about how the Sphinx in
Egypt became eroded. Some scientists believe it

became eroded due to wind erosion, others believe it
was due to water erosion. Present arguments from
both sides on a wiki. Then based on your research,
present your own conclusion.
6. Create: Put elements together to form a coherent or functional whole; reorganize elements into a new
pattern or structure
6.1 Generating
(Hypothesizing)
6.2 Planning
(Designing)
6.3 Producing
(Constructing)
Coming up with alternative hypotheses based on criteria
(e.g., Generate as many hypotheses as you can to explain
why some businesses might not have been a success in our
town; Generate hypotheses to account for an observed
phenomenon)
Devising a detailed procedure for accomplishing some task
(e.g., Submit a business plan for your proposed business
including cover sheet, table of contents, executive summary,
business context, business profile, marketing analysis,
challenges and responses, marketing plan, financials, time
table, summary of needed capital.)
Inventing a product (e.g., Build a habitat for an original
animal you created.)

Generate as many hypothesis as you can to explain
ways in which to reduce the impact of erosion and
weathering on humans (this is how it is stated in the
Next Generation Science Standards). Use a
Photoshow to illustrate various hypothesizes.

Debate the positive and negative effects of weathering
and erosion. Conclude if these two processes are
necessary for the environment.
Provide research on multiple solutions to reduce the
impact of erosion and weathering on humans. Write a
proposal outlining an original solution. Use data to
support your solutions. Use Prezi to present your
information.



Divide students into five groups. Each group will
create a model of a home that includes a possible
solution for lessening the impact of erosion. Use water
and wind to simulate an actual real-world
environment. Determine which solution proved most
effective. Use digital software to demonstrate these
models.
Create a model of a home with a sinkhole forming
underneath the home. Try multiple solutions to fix
the sinkhole to prevent any further damage. Use
digital software to illustrate these solutions.
Anderson, L. W., Krathwohl, D. R., et al (Eds..) (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives.
Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
PBS.org (n.d) Retrieved from: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/lessons/breaking-it-down/activities/1700/.