Sand Hill (Amanda Jarvis)
Title: Determining height and width of a sand hill
Principle(s) Investigated: Collecting data, hypothesizing
Shaping Earth’s Surface
2. Topography is reshaped by the weathering of rock and soil and by the transportation and deposition of sediment. As a basis for understanding this concept:
d. Students know earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, and floods change human and wildlife habitats.
Investigation and Experimentation
7. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept and addressing the content in the other three strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:
a. Develop a hypothesis.
b. Select and use appropriate tools and technology (including calculators, computers, balances, spring scales, microscopes, and binoculars) to perform tests, collect data, and display data.
c. Construct appropriate graphs from data and develop qualitative statements about the relationships between variables.
e. Recognize whether evidence is consistent with a proposed explanation.
h. Identify changes in natural phenomena over time without manipulating the phenomena (e.g., a tree limb, a grove of trees, a stream, and a hill slope).
Materials:
· Dry sand, 500mL ( Home Depot, Play Sand 50lbs)
· Cardboard toilet paper tube (ask students to bring from home)
· Tray or paper box tops
· Wooden barbecue skewer (Dollar Tree)
· Spoon or small Dixie cups (Dollar Tree or Walmart)
· Ruler (supply closet)
· Masking tape (Home depot)
· Pencil or crayon (student materials)
· Several sheets of white paper (recycled paper)
Procedure: In this lab the students will responsible for gathering materials at the front of the desks. In their groups they will decide who will be the gatherer of materials, who will measure, who will be the recorder of data and who will pour the sand. The groups would be best grouped into fours, so that each student has an opportunity to help and participate.
1. Activate prior knowledge
http://www.phschool.com/atschool/phsciexp/active_art/mass_movement/index.html
2. Demonstrate to class what they will be doing in this lab:
a. In the first part of the demonstration the students will be observing how to use the materials.
i. It will first begin by setting up the white piece of paper in the middle of the tray or paper box top and tape it down.
ii. Then the students will need to mark on all sides of the paper .5 cm. Explain to the students that this is the measurement that they will use to determine the height and width of their sand hill.
b. After they have set up their materials their attention will be back on the teacher to demonstrate the lab.
c. To begin the teacher will place the cardboard tube vertically in the center of the tray on the white sheet of paper.
d. Using the spoon or Dixie cup, fill the cardboard tube with the dry sand all the way to the top of the tube.
e. Carefully lift the sand-filled tube straight up so that all the sand flows out. As you lift the tube, have students observe the sand’s movement.
f. Pass out lab worksheet ( attached in the below attachments)
g. Ask the students in their group to develop a hypothesis explaining how the width of the sand hill is related to the height for different amounts of sand. Recorder writes on lab worksheet
h. Discuss how to measure their sand hill
i. Students will begin work in their small groups to collect data on their sand hill. The students will do 5 trials of measuring the height and width of the sand and record their data on the lab worksheet. In each trial the students will be adding more sand to the original sand hill.
j. Following the completion of their five trials the students will complete as a group finish the lab worksheet.
k. Have students input data and answer questions in quickwrite (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0An8H-nlqrtWEdHMwdHU0SFVRMm9ER1VzTVd6bzl1aUE&hl=en_US)
l. Discuss student findings
m. Conclude lab with video of live video of the different types of mass movements and this question that will have students thinking for the next lab:
“Do you think the use of different materials, such as wet sand or gravel, would produce different results from dry sand? Make a new hypothesis about the relationship between slope and width in hills made of materials other than dry sand.”
Student prior knowledge:
Students should have an understanding of what mass movement is. Mass movement is caused by gravity; it can be rapid or slow. The different types of mass movement include landslides, mudslides, slump, and creep.
Explanation: Give a thorough explanation of the experiment or demonstration. Your explanation should be written to give your fellow teachers a solid understanding and include greater detail than what you might provide for your secondary students. Make certain to include equations whenever pertinent.
In this lab the students will be applying their knowledge of mass movement. In their previous lesson they would have been introduced to how the Earth’s surface changes, discussed about weather, erosion and deposition and its cycle in wearing down and building up of Earth’s surface, about gravity and its relationship to mass movement, and the three types of mass movement: creep, landslides, mudslides, and slump. In this lab the students will be observing and hypothesizing about how mass movement affects the size and shape of a sand hill by looking at its height and width. As a teacher it will be important to understand the kinds of hypotheses the students will have and direct them toward using their information they learned in the previous lesson about mass movement. It will also be important to briefly review how to use a meter stick and identifying centimeters, as this is important in measuring their sand hill.
Questions & Answers:
1) How does gravity affect the sand hill?
2) What is the relationship between the height and width of the sand hill?
3) How could other elements such as water and using another material affect the sand hill?
Applications to Everyday Life: Explain (don't just list) three instances where this principle can be used to explain other phenomenon.
1) Construction: As workers develop new roads and homes they have to take in account the land that they are building on and next to. By understanding mass movements and its types, they can determine if a hillside is safe to build next to or not. For example, if you notice that hillsides trees are growing slightly curve, it might indicate that creep has been present and eventually would cause any development to shift.
2) The character/quality of rivers and streams and groundwater flow: This is a very important factor in understanding mass movement. Mass movement can have a great affect on water systems. In instances, many rivers and streams have been blocked because of a recent landslide, mudslide etc. In order to help prevent such thing occurring we need to understand the types of mass movements and the prevention techniques.
3) Concrete slump test: In this lab the students are actually performing a test that is done to measure the workability of fresh concrete. Not only is it important to understand mass movement related to the earth, but also its ability to be manipulated to test other aspects in the world. In the video links, there is a video of a concrete slump test.
Photograph
Include a photograph of you or students performing the experiment/demonstration, and a close-up, easy to interpret photograph of the activity --these can be included later.
Videos:
Include links to videos posted on the web that relate to your activity. These can be videos you have made or ones others have made.
· This video link below can be used to prelude the lesson or conclude it.
o In this video you will see how a sea cliff changed in just a year from deposition and erosion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChEHQUMEkXw&feature=related
o Live video of a Mudslide http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKTG58Bpziw&feature=related
o Live video of a Landslide http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc6ouosXk0Q&feature=related
o Here is a link to review animation that was done in the beginning of the lesson. It is the Prentice Hall animation that coincides with the book. http://www.phschool.com/atschool/phsciexp/active_art/mass_movement/index.html
o Slump test for concrete
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g79Li-MQiOo
Prentice Hall : Science Explorer, Focus on Earth Science book and website:
http://www.phschool.com/atschool/phsciexp/active_art/mass_movement/index.html