5th Grade Discovery Lab
Physical Geology
October 2007
AT THE BEGINNING OF THE LAB:
Write these Vocabulary Words on the White Board: constructive force, destructive force,
erosion; glaciers; seismograph; tectonic plates
Welcome students to the lab. Ask them to take a seat at one of the four stations in the groups that
they were assigned to by their teachers, and put on their lab coats. Tell the students that the
Discovery Lab is funded through the PTA. Thank the students and their parents for participating
in these activities.
Explain to the students how we will be scientists today. What do scientists do? What is the
scientific method? Think about how scientists must observe. They must create a hypothesis and
then test their theory. Can the theory change once new information is found? How can observing
in our everyday life help us learn and grow about science?
Explain to the students that today we will be studying changes to the Earth’s surface. At Station
1 students will study the constructive and destructive forces and build a model of the state of
Georgia and some key landforms. At Station 2 students will look at the effects of glacial erosion.
At Station 3 students will discuss the movement of tectonic plates and look at a simple
seismograph. At Station 4 students will observe the affects of wind on sand dunes.
Who can name some of the forces that change landforms? Flowing water, waves, wind, ice
Who can tell me what the movement of material by water, wind, ice and gravity is called?
Erosion
We will be talking today about forces that FORM LAND. These relate only to the formation of
land.
A constructive force builds up the earth. Who can name some constructive forces?
Depositions (dropping to a new location), earthquakes, volcanos and faults
A destructive force breaks down the earth. Who can name some destructive forces?
Erosion, weathering, earthquakes, volcanoes, and impact of organisms which cause changes in
the earth's surface.
Did you notice any any forces which were both constructive and destructive? Earthquakes and
volcanos. This is because they both build up the earth, and break down the earth.
Time Permitting: Talk about Mount St. Helen. How the top third of the mountain was blown
off in a relatively recent volcanic eruption.
What are the broken rocky slabs that slowly move reshaping land areas, the ocean and sea
bottoms, and that allows volcanic material to surface? Tectonic plates
What is the name of the instrument used to measure ground movements? Seismograph
Time permitting: Has anyone been in an earthquake? What was it like?
What is the name of a huge mass of ice that moves slowly over land called? Glacier
Now send the students to their stations:
Remind students that they should follow the directions of the parent volunteers at each station.
Students should rotate in a clockwise direction until they complete all four stations. Set your
timer for 18 minutes, so the students have enough time to finish the experiments at the station.
When all four labs are completed at the end:
When they have completed the four stations, they should remove their lab coats and lay them on
the back of their chairs. They may take their worksheet with them when they leave.
Time Permitting: Ask the children what they have learned today; write the responses on the
white board if you are comfortable with that. Remind them that through observation in their
daily lives, they can be scientists as they witness landforms changing, or any other changes, and
they can think about the causes and effects.
As the students are exiting the lab, they should sanitize their hands with one squirt from the hand
wash station. A parent (or the Leader) can help with this task. Ask the students to thank the
parent volunteers for their help in the Lab, and give the teacher an Evaluation Sheet. Ask parents
to stay afterwards a few minutes to help set up for the next lab.
Before you leave for the day, make sure there is a lab coat on the back of each chair, and a
new worksheet and SHARPENED pencil with each clipboard. Make sure all stations have
been re-supplied with required materials. You may need to sharpen the pencils or colored
pencil in station 3 if necessary. If you are low on something, please let me know that day so I
can make sure there is enough for the next lab. Also make sure that all parent volunteers sign
in on the PAL sheets near the door. Make sure all sand is wiped off stations 2 and 4, and the
floor is swept.
If you are the last class of the day, turn off one set of lights and make sure both doors are locked.
Return the keys on the ring to the PTA Copy Room cork board. Return any remaining green tab
keys (they unlock the school) to the lock box located near the Trax Computer. If you are
leading the last lab on Friday, please make sure the chairs are stacked against the walls in
four groups, so that the custodians can vacuum. You do not have to put anything away on
Friday.
Station 1: Georgia Landforms (for station leader) Remind the children that constructive forces
in this lab pertain only to what forms land. (The kids kept thinking a force was constructive if it
feed animals or something; it's only if the force BUILT up the earth that it is constructive.)
A constructive force: helps build the earth's surface. These include crustal deformation,
earthquake, volcanic eruption, and deposition of sediment. Crustal deformation and volcanic
eruption are the result of plate tectonics.
A destructive force: breaks down the earth's surface. This includes weathering, erosion,
deposition, earthquake and volcanic eruption. Weathering breaks rocks down into sand and clay
and other sediment particles. Erosion is the transport of those particles from one place to another.
Erosion can carve out valleys and canyons. Deposition of sedimentary particles can form deltas,
dunes, glacial landforms, and many other features.
Did you notice any forces which were both constructive and destructive? Earthquakes
and volcanos. This is because they both build up the earth, and break down the earth.
Each class is different; some classes can fill out the worksheet entirely in a few minutes, some can only do
a few of the landforms. Spend about half the time on the discussion, and the other half building their
landforms. Note once the building begins, it's much harder for the kids to concentrate on the landform
discussion. Just try to get them to WHY. Also, there is not always a right or a wrong answer; if the
children can justify why it's something other than on the chart, and it makes sense, let them go with that.
LANDFORM
HOW
CONSTRUCTIVE DESTRUCTIVE
FORMED?
A) Mountains 1)Volcanoes
X
X
2) Erosion
X
3) FaultX
Block
4)FoldedX
Appalachian/Blue
tectonic plates
Ridge, etc.
moving
together
B) PLATEAU
FIRST
MOUNTAIN
S, THEN
EROSION
X
CUMBERLAND
PLATEAU
C) Gorge
River
cutting
through
Rock
Erosion
X
Tallulah Gorge
X
Providence
Canyon
D) Canyons
LANDFORM
E) Rivers
F) COASTAL
PLAINS
G) Waterfalls
H) Fall Line
I) Barrier
Islands
J) Okefenokee
Swamp
K) Lake
Lanier
HOW
FORMED?
With
Mountains
CONSTRUCTIVE DESTRUCTIVE
X
EROSION
X
1) Erosion:
water eroded away
land, so the land
broke away to the
waterfall.
X
2) Glaciers
Division with
Waterfall and
the Coastal
Plains
Sand and
sediments
gather
Deposition
Man-Made
They are
destructive in
the sense
water covered
land.
Ochlocknee
Waterfalls
formed by
erosion
X
Just separates
geologic
surfaces of
Piedmont and
Coastal Plains
X
X
X
Over 6500,
peat
accumulated
to cover
water.
Water
covered
land.
Station 2: Glacial Erosion (For station leader)
Ask students to be seated and talk to them about glaciers and the nature of erosion related
to glacial movement.
Ice covers ten percent of all earth’s land, and twelve percent of all oceans. Most of this
ice is concentrated in ice caps at the North and South poles. A glacier is a huge mass of
ice that moves slowly over land. Glaciers are divided into two groups: alpine glaciers
and continental glaciers or ice sheets. Alpine glaciers form on mountainsides and move
downward through valleys. Ice sheets are not confined to mountainous areas; they form
broad domes and spread out from their centers in all directions. Glaciers can form any
place where snow accumulation exceeds snow melt. Snow compresses into granules
shortly after falling. When covered with additional snow, the first layer compresses
again into dense, grainy ice. If the accumulation of grainy ice becomes thick enough,
roughly 160 feet thick, the grains become a fused mass of solid ice. The snow is now a
glacier, heavy enough to move with the pull of gravity. Glaciers move at an uneven rate.
Because of their tremendous weight and mass, and in spite of their slow rate of forward
motion, glaciers grind, topple and crush materials changing the earth’s surface. If a
glacier reaches water, the leading edge lifts and floats. Great blocks of the glacier break
off in a process called calving. These floating masses of glacial ice are icebergs.
Ask students to write a Prediction on their worksheets: How does the movement of
glaciers cause erosion?
Give each student a cube of modeling clay, a 10” paper plate, and one “glacier” ice cube.
(Remember to place any unused ice cubes back in the freezer so that they can be used for
another class). Have the students place the “glacier” ice cube on the surface of the
modeling clay, and move it back and forth several times. Have students record what
happens to the clay? It gets scratched. Ask students what happens to the ice cube? It
starts to melt and pieces of sand come off.
Next, ask students to remove the ice cube and place a half teaspoon of sand on top of the
cube of clay. Place the ice cube in the same position, and rub it back and forth vigorously
on the sandy surface of the clay several times. Ask students to remove the ice cube, wipe
the sand away from the clay with a paper towel, and observe its surface. Have students
record what has happened to the surface of the clay? It becomes very rough. Ask
students how they think this experiment shows what might happen to the surface of land
when a glacier drags rocks and other materials over it? The glacier forms ridges,
troughs, hills, etc and leaves behind large rocks and debris deposits.
4) STATION 4: SEISMOGRAPH I found that this station worked best with
anyone with experience with earthquakes, which tended to be people from California.
(I got the egg bit from a great website from the 2004 National Teacher Training Institute specifically for
grades 5 - 6 on this stuff: http://www.myetv.org/education/ntti/lessons/2004_lessons/passtheplate.cfm)
Discussion: We need to explain the main layers of the earth; the core, mantle and crust.
Explain you have two eggs: one hard boiled and one raw. Take the hard boiled egg,
which is one solid mass and spin it. Stop it. Have the children visualize how since
everything is solid, everything stops at the same time. Explain how the yolk is the core,
the white the mantle and the shell the crust. If you are brave, cut open the egg and show
the children. Otherwise, I have a picture. I think the picture is enough. The smell may
distract the kids. They can draw on their sheets the core, the mantle and the crust.
Now take the raw egg to show how the inside layers of the earth move even though the
crust appears to remain motionless. To do this, spin the egg. Point out to the students that
the internal contents of the egg are spinning just as the shell is spinning. Now touch the
egg gently with your finger to stop the motion. Then let go and observe what the egg
does. The egg should continue to move even though you have stopped it. This is because
the fluid parts inside the egg are still spinning due to centripetal force. Note that this is
similar to how the layers of the Earth move. The inner layers of the earth are in motion
even though we do not feel this movement unless we have a major geological event.
Lithosphere and Tectonic Plates: The Lithosphere is the crust and the upper part of the
mantle. (Have the children label this on their diagram.) This lithosphere is made up of a
series of plates. These plates are in constant motion traveling a few centimeters per year.
They move about as fast as your fingernails grow, so we usually don't feel the
movement. Under the Lithosphere is the asthenosphere. (Have the children label this
on their diagram.) This is a layer of soft, but solid mobile rock made up of the inner part
of the mantle. Most scientists believe the asthenosphere moves (carrying the plates with
it) because of the change in temperatures from the core, causing convection currents.
Note, the core does not move with the plates. Let's think what that could mean. A great
example our own Hawaiian Islands.
HAWIIAN ISLANDS FORMED THROUGH VOLCANOS (See picture)
The Hawaiian Islands are an excellent example of how Plate Tectonics work. The
Hawaiian Islands are built on the moving tectonic plate called the "Pacific Plate". This
plate moves 5 - 10 centimeters a year. As the plate moves over a fixed spot deeper in the
Earth where there is a "hot spot ". The "hot spot" heats the mantle, making magma
active. Over time a new volcano punches through, spewing lava through a weak spot in
the Pacific plate and creates an island. (Lava is magma which has reached the surface of
the Earth.) As said before, the Pacific Plate moves slowly over time, along with the new
island and aged volcano, but the hot spot deep in the earth stays put. Again, over time, a
new volcano punches through the Pacific Plate and creates another island. All the islands
are considered to have been made from the same 'hot spot' deep in the core of the earth,
as the plates are constantly moving, but the hot spot in the core does not. Volcanos are
one way mountains are formed.
HOW FOLDED PLATES FORM MOUNTAINS Use foam strips for visual.
When there are compressional movements of plates, they can 'fold' upward and create an
Anticline or mountain. The Appalachians are an old set of mountains formed this way;
the Rockies are a newer set of mountains formed this way. The Alps, Andes, and the
Himalayas are three other examples. Here are some foam strips representing tectonics
plates in the lithosphere. They can move upwards to form mountains, or fold below to
form a Valley or a Syncline.
As we said before, the plates are constantly moving, about as fast as your fingernails
grow; so we can't feel it…..
BUT SOMETIMES WE FEEL THE PLATES MOVING, RIGHT?
When these plates of Earth’s surface crash together or scrape against one another, the
release of energy causes an earthquake. We can feel this movement if it has enough
energy. If it doesn't, we can't feel it, but a special machine called a seismograph can. A
seismograph measures both minor and major geological events, and graphs what are
called seismic waves on paper. Minor earthquakes that we can't feel would have a very
low number on the Richter scale. Major earthquakes which cause a lot of damage would
have a larger number on the Richter scale.
The adult volunteer should place one end of the roll of white paper under the marker, and
remove the cap. Make sure that the tip of the marker touches the paper.
1) Pulling the paper, no shaking the table: Ask one student to hold the Seismograph unit
firmly on the table. A second student should pull the seismogram paper toward them.
What has the seismograph recorded? (A straight line) Students should fill this in on the
first box under seismograph.
2) Ask one student to shake the table back and forth evenly for about 10 seconds. (A
jagged line) Students should fill this in on the middle box under seismograph.
3) Have another student shake mildly for the first 5 seconds, and more vigorously for the
next 5 seconds. It is important that the student pulls the paper forward as evenly as
possible. This is to simulate the regular, even movement of a real seismograph
instrument. Ask the students what they observe. (jagged, straight line, more jagged)
Students should fill this in on the last box under seismograph
What happens to the line if the box is shaken more vigorously? Have students discuss
their observations. The line becomes more jagged. Milder earthquakes result in smaller
tracings on the seismogram paper. Higher energy earthquakes cause larger tracings on the
paper. The size of the tracing on the seismogram paper is directly related to the strength on
the earthquake. There have been earthquakes that have been too strong for seismograph
instruments to measure. The earthquakes exceeded the limits of the seismographs.
If time allows, show the students a picture of an actual seismograph and a seismogram.
Station 4: Sand Erosion (for station leader)
Ask students to be seated and talk to them about erosion.
Erosion is the movement of weathered materials like rock fragments and particles of soil
broken down by water, ice and temperature changes. Water, ice, wind and gravity are the
agents of erosion. These agents move weathered materials and change the shape of the
land. Wind erosion can blow sand into large mounds called dunes. Many sandy beaches
have long lines of sand dunes on their land side. These dunes help protect the land
behind them during storms. In this experiment, students will observe the factors affecting
the types of sand dunes created by wind.
Create a sand “dune” at the open end of the box. Pour the colored sand in a straight line
near the first mark, and pour the non-colored sand behind the colored sand on the second
mark. Make the dunes fairly deep for this demonstration. Add some of the dark blue
sand to the top of the first sand dune, so that the students can better see the results.
Ask students to PREDICT what they think will happen when wind blows onto a
sand dune?
Hold the blow-dryer horizontally about six inches from the end of the box. Turn the
blow dryer on LOW, and GENTLY blow air across the dunes for about 30 seconds.
Ask students what happened to the sand as the “wind” blew on it? It was blown
completely to the back of the box.
Ask students to PREDICT how they think plants and stones influence dune erosion?
Rebuild the sand dune and arrange some plants (use the smaller leaves of fake greenery),
some stones and some sticks on top of the sand dunes. Apply “wind” with the blow
dryer as described above. Ask students what they OBSERVE? Less sand is blown
away.
Rebuild the dunes again, and arrange plants, stones and sticks throughout the sand (some
should be buried). Apply “wind” with the blow dryer as described above. Ask students
what they OBSERVE? The more plants, sticks and stones that are added, the less
affect the wind has on the sand dunes.
Ask students why sand dune management is so important? It helps prevent erosion
of beaches and shorelines.
At the end of the experiment pour the sand from the box into the bucket provided, so that it can be re-used
for the next group. This mixed sand can be used to build the front sand dune for the next group of
students. Just remember to add some of the darker colored blue sand to the top of the first dune to help
students distinguish what happens when the wind blows across the dunes.
Previous leaders comments: Leader should always use blow dryer, but allow students to take turns
building up the sand dunes in this order: (each represents a new student)
1. sand
2. leaves
3. sticks
4. houses
5. rocks