Shaping the Land[science, geography, maths] 

This activity challenges students to work out how transfers of energy between moving water and earth material can cause land to erode and change over time. Students develop and revise models, plan and carry out their own investigations, and build an understanding of core ideas related to energy transfer in the context of earth systems. By the end of the unit, students develop a full scientific explanation answering the driving question of ‘How do walls and canyons form along our streams and rivers?’ 

• Scientific explanation and modeling skills

• Erosion and the effects of weathering on the rate of erosion

• Energy transfer when objects collide

This unit has a creativity and critical thinking focus

• Generate questions, review theories & compare perspectives

• Envision how to pose and solve scientific problems

Web and print

• Video of local stream 

•  Level appropriate reading on energy

•   Investigation and observation sheets for students 

•  Driving Question Board to keep track of class and student questions 

Other Resources

• Visit to local river and stream landforms  

• Materials necessary for creating models of local streams and rivers (e.g., stream tables, sand, rocks, water) and investigating the collision of objects (e.g., ramps, balls, wood blocks, rulers) 

Opportunities to adapt, extend, and enrich

• This unit is the first learning set in a sequence of six possible learning sets. The remaining learning sets could have students examine the cause of other landform phenomena (e.g., mountains, sand dunes, cliffs along lakes and oceans, mudslides) and design an engineering solution to mitigate the impacts changes to the land may have on communities.

English Version

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jFvVVVUP6n2IqCjb6kwCsdqqR_TGGudFH42qKVQu0vU/edit?usp=sharing

Hindi Version

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aBy_lnEejyBlCYBijNe4NBNC-NSyuMe1vJN72Okcmjc/edit?usp=sharing

Gujarati Version

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/13IcxYALbHORoXKj_6DJtkzhSr_hQKZ8RftDpqNEQLwg/edit?usp=sharing 

Kannada Version

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b7ypMUR1pGZcLmSUqHRqkhXQb-tIpD259XCZqfnVlR4/edit?usp=drive_link