While watching the video "Restless Landscapes" I learned some interesting things about sand, water and how landscapes are formed. I pretty much knew already that sand came from the erosion of mountains/rocks but it was super interesting to listen to the 4th/5th graders give their explainations of where they believe sand comes from and also when they answered the question about why mountain ranges look different. I guess I really never thought about the different sizes/shapes/ages of mountains. I knew they were formed when two techtonic plates smooshed together, but a large part of the size/shape of mountains are shaped from the sky-from water, wind & weathering. We learned a lot about the contents in this video from the last few chapters we've studied-I found I was able to connect with the material and comprehend it because I have a basic understanding about the different kinds of rock, the layering of rock and the chemical weathering process already.
A couple things I really liked from the video especially was the comparision of a glacier to a "conveyor belt"-how it picks up sediment, gravel, boulders, etc along the way and then deposits them-and that is in fact what we learned in the video about how Cape Cod was formed. I didn't know Cape Cod was all sand! That's really cool, and now I know why. Kind of crazy that scientists think it will be totally washed away in a few thousand years though. I liked the activity the teacher did with her students in learning about ground water as well. She modeled how to see it in the classroom by giving the students a bunch of rocks in a canister and then had them pour water into it-then you can see that the water is filling up all the spaces between the rocks-and also they used sponges (to model aquifers-rocks that can hold water). I think that is a great activity to do with students!
Lastly, I liked how they compared the earth's atmosphere as the "earths outer most layer" and stated it was kind of like "earth's blanket", protecting it from many things. I guess I never thought of the atmosphere as a layer of the earth, but it makes sense that it is since it plays such a huge role in everything that happens on earth. All in all, very cool video.
No comments:
Post a Comment