Are you looking to teach the difference between weathering and erosion to your middle school students? I’m here with some awesome ideas to bring the WOW Factor to your classroom while teaching this fun topic!
Earth’s surface changes all the time. Weathering and erosion work together to make some of these changes. Basically, weathering breaks down rock, and erosion carries the rock away!
In this post, I share how you can bring the WOW Factor to your classroom while teaching your students about weathering and erosion and the similarities and differences between them. First, I share some WONDER strategies. These help you to gain student “buy-in” for the topic and help them become internally motivated to learn. Second, I share a lesson that will help your students OVERCOME OVERWHELM of all of the content. Finally, I share some WIDEN strategies to help your students apply the information and learn even more to expand their knowledge!
Which strategies will you use to teach your middle school students the difference between weathering and erosion?
Weathering and Erosion WONDER Strategies
I am a huge fan of using WONDER strategies before starting a lesson. This helps students become internally motivated to learn. It’s the hook that brings them in! Here are some fun WONDER strategies to use when teaching about weathering and erosion!
Living on the Edge
This is a unique way to get your students excited about learning more about weathering and erosion, especially if you love watching videos in your classroom. This video is a clip from CBS Mornings. It’s from a few years ago but is still very interesting.
It shows people being forced to move out of their apartments because it’s on the edge of a cliff that has been exposed to weathering and erosion. They have to move out because they are in danger of literally falling into the ocean.
I love that it shows students a real-life situation. You always hear students say “Why do we even need to know this?”, and this video shows why. Maybe it’s not the best idea to build so close to the coast?
Ask them what they would do it this situation!
Grand Canyon Tour
One of the greatest weathering and erosion marvels is the Grand Canyon. This is one place that I haven’t been to that is on my bucket list! It’s so beautiful.
If you and your students are like me and you don’t live close to the Grand Canyon at all, you can do the next best thing! You can have them to do a Google Earth tour of it!
Fortunately, a tour has already been created! Students can look through the pictures or look through the canyon on their own! They can drag the “little man” to certain areas of the map to get a closer look. It’s not the same as being there but is still truly amazing.
It’s crazy how massive it really is. It really makes you wonder how it got to be this way. I know that there are many theories, but wow!
Weathering, Erosion, and Deposition Relay
I saw this fun game online, and I just fell in love. It’s so simple, but it will help give students an analogy to help them grasp the concepts of weathering and erosion, as well as deposition, before they even start to learn about it.
I also love this because it gets students outside and moving. That’s two of the things that students need the most!
This idea comes from Kristen Leigh from a post she wrote in 2015! Check it out! Students model weathering, erosion, and deposition using blocks and a relay-style race. What fun!
Weathering and Erosion Interactive Lesson
One of the most common complaints from teachers is that they teach their heart out, and then once students complete an assessment, it’s like they have forgotten everything that they were taught, or it just seems like they were not listening at all.
That’s why I love interactive lessons! They implement the 7 steps to help students retain information. They use strategies such as highlighting important information and segmenting content to help reduce student cognitive load. Once you reduce this, students are more likely to remember what they learn.
You see, if you overwhelm students with too much information, they end up not learning anything at all! They have to have time to process this information.
I believe that this weathering and erosion interactive lesson does just that. Students will learn all about sediment, weathering (mechanical and chemical), erosion, and so much more!
Embedded are activities such as a KWL, drag-and-drop activities, exploring outside video and text resources, a Venn diagram, and more! These activities help students to pause and process what they just learned before moving on.
This lesson can be found in the Bright in the Middle Shop.
It can also be found on TPT.
Weathering and Erosion WIDEN Activities
Once students have “learned some content”, it’s now time to take it a step further and let them apply what they have learned and expand their knowledge. Here are some WIDEN strategies!
Soil Erosion STEM Project
I have been loving seeing all of the wonderful ideas for weathering and erosion, and I love this idea from Professor Doubter NGSS Science Resources.
This is another one of those “real-life” applications. Weathering and erosion happen all of the time and affects coastal areas, areas with heavy wind, areas that are urbanized, and more!
This is a problem-based learning STEM activity where students explore the effects of erosion in various places. Check it out!
Modeling the Difference Between Weathering and Erosion
Why not take the time to model these processes.
All you’ll need is a container or pan of sediment and a method of weathering and erosion.
For example, you can pour water on the sediment and observe what happens. You can also set ice on the sediment and observe what happens.
Have students explain the difference between weathering and erosion in these models. In addition, they can come up with a solution to help stop weathering and erosion!
Here are some videos to explore!
Weathering, Erosion, and Deposition Experiment
Erosion and Deposition Experiments
Physical and Chemical Weathering Stations
I also love these stations by Beakers and Ink!
So, which ideas will you choose to teach the difference between weathering and erosion?
Help your students master science content!
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