One of the great things about having a large natural setting for a school is that the campus is a huge laboratory. Intermediate students have been
learning about erosion and weathering (5th grade Earth Science TEKS). Our school building sits atop a steep hill above a flood plain. We have the amazing ability to bring
these TEKS to life. Where the septic tanks were placed in the hill there is a rain runoff area from the driveway. This week the entire student body toured the campus to study the check dams that were constructed on the other side of the campus by Design, Build, Live volunteers summer before last. Then we began collecting rocks and logs from all over campus to build new check dams. Kate had one team with the little red wagon hauling rocks from the east side of campus, Rashid's group brought logs up the hill and my group cleared the goat pen of large rocks. Then we used the wheelbarrow to bring rocks from near the gardens on the southern side of campus.
learning about erosion and weathering (5th grade Earth Science TEKS). Our school building sits atop a steep hill above a flood plain. We have the amazing ability to bring
these TEKS to life. Where the septic tanks were placed in the hill there is a rain runoff area from the driveway. This week the entire student body toured the campus to study the check dams that were constructed on the other side of the campus by Design, Build, Live volunteers summer before last. Then we began collecting rocks and logs from all over campus to build new check dams. Kate had one team with the little red wagon hauling rocks from the east side of campus, Rashid's group brought logs up the hill and my group cleared the goat pen of large rocks. Then we used the wheelbarrow to bring rocks from near the gardens on the southern side of campus.
We worked together and in about an hour and a half, we built a series of check dams on the hill. The chickens inspected our work and seemed to be satisfied. Later that day, we did some research into the connection between famous landforms and erosion factors. Yesterday the kids worked in small groups to create models called "Lentil Land." Each model featured at least 6 landforms that we had researched.
Integrating spelling with -ion words like location and erosion, we spent the day making connections and having fun while working together. After making the models, students created a map of their project complete with compass rose.
Words like "delta" and "isthmus" come to life when you are having fun. (The Lentil Land project comes from of TOPS Science, which we highly recommend.)
Meanwhile the primary class made it rain inside by creating a model of the water cycle (2nd grade Earth Science TEKS) on the stove. You can bet that everyone of them knows a lot about evaporation and condensation now. They were so excited, you would have thought it was a birthday party! What is great is that we tied it all together, rain, runoff, erosion. It made the very cold rainy days we spent earlier in the week inside at the Inside Outside School more relevent.
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