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1999 Curriculum Projects Home Page
Introduction:In our school district, students in fourth grade focus on discovering the history of our state. The information in our textbook refers to the geographical areas of our state, but doesn’t focus on specific geological development of the land itself. During the same learning period, students also are engaged in a hands-on science unit, “Land and Water” developed by the Carolina Biological Science Company. That unit focuses on interactions between land and water. The goal of this project was to create an integrated unit that provided a greater background for students in both the scientific and historical realms of study. Since fourth graders prepare for the state writing assessment, I also wanted to incorporate a writing segment so students could practice paragraphing and supplying details in writing. My principal is highly interested in Idaho projects and visited several times to see student projects. Description of the Unit:
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 | The concept of geological change over time was introduced through storytelling, drawings, and rock samples while students compiled a booklet of the timeline that scientific thought has given to the formation of Idaho. During the writing portion of our day, students recorded details of this timeline in paragraph formats. They designed illustrations to accompany those paragraphs. On a daily basis, we reviewed the progression of land changes that had occurred so far on our timeline. Depending on the geological event, I provided rock samples or demonstrations to help them visualize differences. That timeline was: |
| 700 million years ago: Idaho was flat and covered by a sea |
| 250 million years ago: the plates were changing and the Eurasian and Pacific plates were pushed apart |
| 100 million years ago: North American and Pacific plates collided with the Pacific plate pushed under and folding occurring on the North American resulting in mountain development |
| 50 million years ago, batholiths were pushed up through the crust |
| 17 million years ago, theory that a meteorite created a hot spot that has moved over the years below Idaho and is now under Yellowstone |
| 2 million years ago, Island Park caldera formed |
| 2 thousand years ago, Craters of the Moon lava flow |
| 1983, Mt. Borah earthquake |
| As this unit developed, students became aware of the many geological hazards that affect the land in Idaho. Our discussions included floods, volcanoes, earthquakes, and plate tectonics. Students started to bring in samples of rocks to see how they matched some of the samples they’d seen in class. Others brought in pictures from recent Snake River floods. One of my quieter students became a knowledgeable source of information about Yellowstone and the Island Park geological events. We also added forest fires to our lists of hazards, and spent some time on the Yellowstone fires. |
| Earlier in the year, we had taken a walking field trip along the Snake River to look for signs of interactions between land and water. Students also took a tour of the electric plant. |
| When we started talking about earthquakes, students began to notice movements of the land in their streambed experiments that showed fissures and sloughing off of the land due to a sudden change. They liked showing those discoveries. In order to expand on that idea, I initiated a playground field trip to look for fault lines. We imagined that the concrete and asphalt presented the earth’s crust and looked for fault lines. They became pros at finding faults that had occurred due to frost heaves and recent construction at our school. |
| In my class this year, I have a student who, due to a condition he has, can become obsessed with any hazards in the environment. We know when the sky becomes cloudy because he can become agitated about the possibility of tornados. In earlier grades, he was fearful of volcanoes. With those conditions, I had to adapt my approach to this unit. Due to his situation, I addressed both the benefits and hazards of each type of hazard we studied. I also decided to engage the students in a more general background study of Idaho geological hazards rather than focus on one. Those approaches worked well with this student. We learned about earthquake safety and practiced drills and his reaction was more accepting than I had anticipated. |
| One of the students’ realizations that I hadn’t anticipated was that they wanted to have earthquake warning, like we have fire bells to warn people to get out of a building. They realized the problems in anticipating earthquakes when we did a simulation of the Borah earthquake. We’d had some construction in our area and had become used to the shaking of the earth due to the machines packing the soil. We talked about how unusual it is for us to actually feel an earthquake and how long it would take to realize one was occurring. They made their predictions and then I had them time the Mt. Borah tremors. They realized that the earthquake tremors would have been mostly completed before people would have realized they needed to protect themselves. They also realized they couldn’t leave our school before that earthquake would have ended. |
| For each hazard we explored, we discussed what impact it would have on people. In the case of earthquakes, students took turns pointing out objects in our classroom that could tumble and cause problems during an earthquake. |
| As an informal assessment, students were given different colors of clay and a clay model checklist to demonstrate their understanding of the geological terms we’d discussed during the unit. They performed these tasks with a partner, compared their models, and discussed their understanding of the concepts. As a whole, students seemed confident of their models, although some students were more detailed in their presentations than others. (Campbell’s soup cans worked well as rolling pins, and what an anticipatory set that was—they could hardly wait to see why they needed a can of soup for studying about mountains!) |
| One of the projects that intrigued students was an evaluation of earthquake data that I’d received from the Bureau of Disaster Services. They acted quite proud to be able to act like scientists and create a pattern of earthquake occurrences on a map of Yellowstone and of Idaho. I gave them a printout of earthquake logs for September 1st through October 16th and gave them the challenge of plotting approximate locations of earthquakes on the two maps. I explained the significance of information on the log and told them we would narrow our focus to seismic activity in Idaho or in Yellowstone. I had received Yellowstone National Park maps from the Park Service and had copied an Idaho map for this purpose. After modeling the first few days of data and how to record it on the maps, students started working independently on the project. I was thrilled at their dedication to the project and their requests to stay in from recess to finish. |
| Since we had discussed the movement of the hot spot across Idaho and into Yellowstone, a few students wondered if Idaho used to have as many earthquakes as they recorded on their maps of Yellowstone. They were making connections, and we talked about how scientists look at patterns when they make theories about events that happened long ago. |
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students compiled their map entries, we shared information about their
discoveries. We created a chart of the number of earthquakes in major
locations. They noticed that not all students had found the same
number from the data. This resulted in some self-evaluation about each
student's own work. We made a common chart of the most common numbers
of earthquake activity. I had been teaching them how to make
spreadsheets and graphs on Works, so this became their independent practice
on creating a project from the data they’d compiled. I collected a
few samples of their work. Although I prefer Excel to Works, students
were able to create graphical information that they could interpret for me. [Back to Top] |
At the fourth grade level, students are still developing an interest and background in science. This unit, when implemented in an integrated manner that included elements of reading, writing, history, and science, added depth to the material I had taught in the past. Students were interested in the concepts and were engaged in the many topics that evolved during the time of study.
Science is ungraded for fourth graders in our district, so my evaluations were of a more qualitative nature. All students enjoyed creating an illustrated journal of the geological development of Idaho. Some students who struggle with fine motor skills found it difficult to form clay into models that were easy for their partner to identify, but they were able to offer an explanation that justified the model. Students learned the value of accuracy when they were interpreting the seismic activity data and had different results. They enjoy having earthquake drills and often remind me at inopportune times that we haven’t done that for a while. They gained an understanding of the land around Idaho that they include in discussions as we continue our study of Idaho history. I hope to include some of these activities with future classes of students.
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