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Aloha, I teach 2nd grade and just did a couple of lessons on erosion, focusing primarily on wind, water, and ice. The main hands-on activity I had my students do was similar to "Landforms in a tub". The students poured sand in those foil baking trays(from Safeway), they shaped mountains and other landforms. Then, using a straw, blew air onto the sand to simulate wind erosion. They had a blast and made some really thoughtful observations, noticing the velocity and direction they were blowing in and the different effects it was having on their landscape. Accompanying that activity they poured dirt into other baking trays, made mountains and other land forms. This time they tilted the tray slightly and poured water onto the dirt in order to simulate water erosion. They loved this activity too and some of the groups even made small houses or castles out of sticks and twigs which they witnessed the rushing water sweep away. They noticed meanders, pooling, and other things too. I was very pleased with their level of enthusiasm, keen comments, and interest in what seemed to me like such a simple and effortless experiment. But they got so much out of it. I would love to do follow-up activities that stress the same concept - the changing landscape and what causes the changes - and I wonder if you have any recommendations. Have you ever done similar hands-on activities with 7 year olds about erosion? It would be lovely to hear from you. Mahalo, Saba

Great activity idea! Being in Hawaii and surrounded by mountains and ocean, there are many "real-life" examples for our keiki (children). There are safety nets all around mountainsides where boulders and rocks fall. There are also many tragic stories of people's lives and properties being destroyed because of erosion. We have our county workers moving sand around to various beaches because of erosion. This is an informative website with explanations and pictures from Hawaii. http://www.state.hi.us/dlnr/exhibits/clp/CoastalErosion1.html

Thank you for the website, it's very informative. I appreciate the visuals and that will certainly help with the children's understanding of erosion and beach loss.

I love your idea of having the students use different materials to create forces that erode Earth's crust! Something to add to the great models you've created could be the motion of waves. Having the kids use either dirt or sand and adding water but this time using another pan to create waves and see how that affects the sediment. Also changing the strength of the waves could attribute to more or less erosion.

Considering these are 7-year-olds, I wouldn't want to go too deep into how tragic erosion could be but talking about the some of the effects of erosion, could get them to think deeper about how it affects our world. If you want, you could show the time-elapsed video of an Arctic coastline eroding over a course of a month.

There was a class that I took that demonstrated a great model for erosion. You can take students to the beach on a field trip, and use sand, a container with a hole in it, small sandbox, and mold the sand in a way that resembles a shoreline. Then pour the water onto the sand, and see how it models erosion. Very lost cost yet effective, and you can change a whole bunch of variables like the size of the hole in the container, the contours of the sand, etc.

These activities are the classics. I remember doing these exact activites in elementary school and then I did them with my 4th grade class while I did my student teaching. No matter how much technology advances, there's nothing just like the old faithful activities.

How about looking at the effect plants and roots have on slowing erosion? This might create a sense of empowerment to help students realize they can help slow the process of erosion. Not that erosion is necessarily bad though... Erosion did create the beautiful landscapes we have in Hawaii (Waimea Canyon, Napali Cliffs, Waipio Valley etc.).

Denise, Thank you for the idea to use plants to show the other side of the coin. I hadn't considered that but I see now that it's good for the kids to understand the role plants/trees play in keeping the earth and landscape together. Yes, these activities are "classics". What's great to see is how much enthusiasm the kids have about just experimenting with such low cost and totally natural materials.

Wow Sherilynn, That time lapse video was amazing and alarming. But, I think it can certainly be presented in a way that will help Lower El. children think about the environment as one that's constantly in a state of change. I believe the discussion resulting from such visual material can be a really rich and enriching one. Thank you for the link.

Saba, I'm wondering if you would consider the "food" approach as an abstract model to accompany what you've already done with real life materials. As a third-grade teacher (also in Hawaii), the concept of water-associated erosion also helps support my instruction of the water cycle. You could also associate "acid rain" using baking soda and vinegar as another demo. The "fizzing" can represent the changes to the calcium carbonate limestone rocks on earth. While not erosion, per say, it does have its effects. (I'm not sure, but I think the UH East-West center gate has a limestone pillar and think it might have shown wear in the past; can't recall if I learned that years ago in geology there.) I was also thinking that the consequences of wind erosion could also be demonstrated on "rock" if you used stale french bread and sandpaper. I haven't tried it myself, but was thinking about using that as one of my demos for when I teach my earth unit again. Lori

Hi Lori, Your comment about "food approach" is very intriguing. In addition to your french bread & sandpaper activity, do you have any other ideas about using food to show the effects of erosion? I don't think I've ever heard of that but it sounds really great. Thanks, Saba

Hi Lori, Your comment about "food approach" is very intriguing. In addition to your french bread & sandpaper activity, do you have any other ideas about using food to show the effects of erosion? I don't think I've ever heard of that but it sounds really great. Thanks, Saba