Held April 15-18th 2024

Learning Goals: 

• Students will learn the phrase “critical zone” & understand its boundaries 

• Students will be able to identify weathering as a driver of soil formation & therefore plant growth

This workshop was held in multiple 2nd grade stem courses. For this project we held two activities. The first was an activity where the students acted as "rock" surrounding a student who was a "nutrient". The last student acted as a "root" who had to find ways through the rock to get to the nutrient. As we played we spaced out the students acting as rocks more to signal weathering, and how it makes it easier for plants to find nutrients. The second activity was having the students create their own critical zone. Here we found a large clear tub and had students layer the bedrock, saprolite, soil, and plants within the tub so they can see the critical zone layers through the clear sides. Each class was able to keep their critical zone with hopes that they would be able to see the roots of the plants grow through the clear sides. Students walked away with better knowlegde of the critical zone and weathering processes. 

In Progress: Will be held June 18-19th 2024

Learning Goals: 

• Connect Earth Science concepts to NGSS and real research happening in the scientific community. 

• Teachers can bring lesson plans, new concepts, and exciting connections back to their classroom that focus on research in the critical zone.