Education Corner: Weathering and Erosion

Have you ever looked at the beach and come back a few weeks later to see major changes to the shoreline? Have you seen massive puddles in your yard after a rainstorm? Erosion plays a huge part in answering these questions. Pinellas County is located on the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico which is vulnerable to storms and hurricanes that shift sand, soil, and rocks. It is essential to get children to think about how storms can impact our environment and home developments along our Pinellas County coastline. One of the major concerns that policy makers and homeowners need to think about is weathering and erosion. I’ll be providing two different DIY activities for elementary school aged children and middle school aged children so they can experience weathering and erosion hands on in a fun and interactive way.

DIY Activity 1: Which house do you want to live in?

Ages: Grades 2-5

Your family is looking to buy a new house. You get to pick which house you want to live in. Both houses are on the bottom of a hill. Option 1 is a large house with a large pool and 5 bedrooms but the area around it recently experienced deforestation due to logging by a local company. Option 2 is a smaller house with a few bedrooms and no pool, and this house is surrounded by lots of trees and native plants. Both houses experience heavy rainstorms during the summer and occasionally major hurricanes.

Procedure:

  1. Decide what house do you want to buy (Option 1 or 2).

  2. In one pan, place approximately 1/4 cup of dirt. This represents house option 1.

  3. In the other pan, fill the container halfway with any kind of vegetation (flowers, sod, weeds). This represents house option 2.

  4. Make sure to have them elevated on some kind of ramp (See picture)

  5. Very slowly add water to pan 1 and then repeat using approximately the same amount of water with pan 2. 

  6. See below for concepts to discuss or questions for children. 

Concepts to discuss with children:

Questions for the children:

  1. What effects did the rainwater have on the soil in each tray?

  2. What does the experiment tell you about the effects of rain on loose soil and soil with vegetation in the real world?

  3. Hypothesize what might happen to a town if it was located at the base of each of our pretend hillside’s slopes?

  4. What might be the effects of the logged hillside if there was a river located at its base? How could this impact the animals or water quality?

  5. If you do this with older elementary or middle school aged children, you can even have them measure the slope (great practice of math skills).

DIY Activity 2: Extension of this activity for older kids

Skittles: Weathering and Erosion

Grade level: 5-8

Procedure:

  1. Place 1 skittle in the tin pan or Tupperware. Make an observation of what it looks like now.

  2. Add 10 drops of water onto your skittle.

  3. Record your observations via visual drawing or written.

  4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 six more times. You should have added approximately 70 drops of water in total.

Predict, Observe and Explain (POE) Worksheet Questions:

Color #1:

  • Predict what will happen:

  • Observe (drawing or written):

  • Explain 

Repeat this Predict, Observe and Explain for each color.

Concepts to discuss with children:

Physical weathering, chemical weathering, erosion and deposition.

Questions to discuss:

  1. Compare and contrast erosion vs weathering.

  2. What is the difference between physical and chemical weathering?

  3. How does this relate to real world situations?

  4. How does water (rain) impact our local coastal environment?

What’s Next:

One of the best ways to give back to your community is to participate in planting native plants and removing of invasive vegetation. Why is this so important? Planting native plants and trees help with erosion which is the process of sediments, rocks or materials moving from one location to another by wind, water or other natural surface processes. It is also important to remove invasive plants as these species can displace native plants and prevent native plants from growing and thriving. Keep Pinellas Beautiful has many activities that you can join throughout the year to get involved in your community and stop erosion from occurring.

Brittany BandyComment