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Exploring Landforms of North and South America

In this assignment, students will explore 25 features found in North and South America. They will circle, outline, and label specific locations on maps of North and South America. In the teacher instructions, you can also find a link to a Presentation that shows and discusses the geology and uniqueness of many of these locations.

For more Earth Science labs and resources visit EarthScience.xyz

Exploring River Formation Earth Science Lab

In this observation lab, students will use stream tables to observe how rivers form. When students are done they will understand how natural landslides can cause river course changes, how meanders are formed, how heavier sediment gets deposited quicker than lighter sediment like silt and clay, why rivers take the path they do, and how deltas are formed. Teacher notes, observations, suggestions, an answer key, and reflections are included.

For more Earth Science activities and resources visit, EarthScience.xyz

Earth Science Absolute Dating Lab

In this earth science lab, students will flip M&Ms/Skittles to help them gain a better understanding as to what absolute dating is. Students will learn what radioactive elements are and how scientists use this understanding to give an age to rocks and fossils. Students will create a spreadsheet and create a graph that will visually demonstrate the half-life of Carbon 14. There are 6 word problems that they will analyze to help them understand how to use a half-life graph.

Earth Science: Understanding Glaciers Lab

This is an interactive digital glacier lab that will help students understand what glaciers are, what some of the formations and deposits look like, and will have students explore how glaciers grow and shrink, and how scientists go about discovering glacial movement speeds over time as well as finding out how scientists come up with the numbers of how long glaciers will last at current rates. Students will actually be the scientists discovering the rate of speed as they build their own interactive glacier using PhET. You will need computers that can run Java.

Earth Science: Why do Rivers have Deltas Video

This is an excellent video, by MinuteEarth, to show your Earth Science students how deltas from due to river deposition.  It discusses how the river at its mouth will either create a delta or erode more of the land.  The science video will talk about how during ice ages, ocean levels drop and rivers then cut deeper into the land.  During part of the video, there is a quick discussion about how civilizations formed around the fertile land of deltas.

Copper Penny Oxidation Lab

In this lab students design and experiment that will oxidize a penny. The purpose of this lab besides demonstrating chemical weathering is to assess how well students are understanding the scientific method as well as their ability to think outside the box by taking content knowledge and applying it in a lab situation. I stand back from this lab to see how well students perform. Students will observe their pennies each day until their pennies are dry or for 3 or more days, depending on how they set up their design.

Cave Formations and Information Investigation Activity

In this assignment students will find images of the most common formations found in caves: helictites, stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone, cave popcorn, soda straws, draperies, cave bacon, columns, and boxwork They will be assigned a specific cave from a list of 18 and answer 8 out of many questions about the cave. Students get to choose the open-ended questions from a list or create their own questions. This assignment is designed to generate interest in visiting the many caves throughout the world. Many of the caves in the list are found right here in the United States.

Understanding Sand Dunes

In this sand dune activity, students will have the opportunity to explore five different types of sand dunes: barchan, parabolic, star, transverse, and longitudinal (seif).

This Sand Dune Lab worksheet offers a hands-on experience in understanding different sand dune types and their characteristics. By creating sand dune models and answering related questions, students will deepen their knowledge of these geological formations and their connection to wind patterns.

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