Weathering, Erosion, and Deposition

Students will spend the next 2 weeks reviewing and discussing weathering, erosion, and deposition. To teach this topic, I always begin with a song:)

Catastrophic Event Vocabulary Homework

Create a vocabulary diagram (Frayer Model) for each word. The words and definitions are below to help you.

catastrophic - causing widespread damage
human impact - the indirect and direct consequences of human actions on the natural environment
natural events - relating to nature
hurricane-A severe storm with torrential rains and winds greater than 74 mph.
tornado- extremely destructive funnel-shaped rotating column of air that passes in a narrow path over land
flooding- a very large amount of water that has overflowed its source
ecosystem- organisms and their environment

Crushing Can Experiment

1. The Collapsing Can Experiment.
*This builds upon the Marshmallow Madness experiment with pressure.
Materials: Aluminum soda can, Ice Water, Measuring Cup, Hot Plate-to heat up soda can, Tongs /oven mitt, Clear (glass) container to hold ice water, with a flat bottom, safety goggles
Procedure:
•Fill a bowl with cold water (adding ice would help).
•Put about 2 tablespoons of water in an empty soda can
•Heat the soda can on a hotplate.
•Place can up-right on stove and heat until steam is seen escaping from the mouth of can.
•Then quickly move the can over the bowl of cold water, and quickly invert it. Lowering it so that the top lip of the soda can (pointing down) just barely gets submerged underwater all the way around.
•Wait a few seconds. The soda can should quickly crumple in on itself. If it doesn’t, try the experiment again, something went wrong. (Usually either the water in the can was not boiling hard enough, or the can was submerged too much or too little.)

In Journals: Students need to try to explain and diagram what they think happened.

Predicting a Tornado

Students will use the link below to research the conditions needed for a tornado to form. Students will be required to make a journal entry of the needed conditions by next class.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/forcesofnature/forces/tornadoes.html

Predicting a Hurricane

Students will use the link below to research the conditions needed for a hurricane to form. Students will need to complete the data table of their findings.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/forcesofnature/forces/hurricanes.html

Catastrophic Events Note Taking Handout

Hurricane Katrina
Geographic location:

Possible causes:

Impacts on environment:

Haiti Earthquake
Geographic location:

Possible causes:

Impacts on environment:

Super Outbreak
Geographic location:

Possible causes:

Impacts on environment:

Goliad Tornado
Geographic location:

Possible causes:

Impacts on environment:

Students will read the following news articles (Links are located under Science Links) and complete the information above.
As students read they need to focus on the following:
a.Describe the catastrophic event in the article
b.Speculate on the causes of the catastrophic event in the article.
c.Predict the effects of the catastrophic event on the organisms and the environment of the area mentioned in the article.

Catastrophic Events

One of my favorite topics of the year is Catastrophic Events. Although many students know and/or can give examples of catastrophic events, few know why we teach it in 7th grade. No, it is not because we want to learn how to better protect ourselves. Rather, we study this section to learn about how these devasting events help shape the Earth's surface. We will be spending the next 3 class periods studying the environmental impacts and the ways in which disasters change the Earth's surface.