Friday, August 29, 2008

Second Grade Earth Science Lesson Plans

DRAFT -
rev 3

Texts Used:
Janice VanCleave's Earth Science for every Kid
How to Dig a Hole to the Other Side of the World by Faith McNulty
The Practical Geologist by Dougal Dixon (PG)
Encyclopedia of world geography

Geology Crafts (GC)
Hill of Fire
http://www.thesolutionsite.com/lesson/1206/watsonelB1.html
http://www.amnh.org/ology/index.php?channel=earth#channel

The Earth Science Book (TESB)



Lesson 1 Formation of the earth - history and structure





  • This is the class where we bring the globes and the layer book and discuss the earth and what's in side and outside it.
  • Start with a brainstorm of what kids think is in the earth. Scientists can't take x-rays or samples to see what is in the earth. Show an apple as representative of the earth. SLice in quarters and explain the the skin is like the crust of the earth and it has taken many years to drill down bast the crust. The white part of the apple is like the earth's mantle. It is made of hot melted rock and is 1800 miles thick - this is lava. the outer core is melted nickle and iron. These metals are very heavy. The inner core is solid nickle and iron.

  • Layers of earth snack -
  • 13 marshmellows, jelly type candy, buttler, rice crispies, chocolate shell, microwaveable bowl. Put candy in center of a marshmellow, mix butter and other 12 marshmellows in a bowl and microwave for 1 minute, stir for a minute, stir in cereal, wet hands and roll mixture around core, freeze for 15 minutes, cover with chocolate sauce, wait, eat.

  • Read How to Dig a Hole to the Other Side of the World
  • Investigating the Earth from Ency of World Geography pg. 19 (this talks about how geologists study the Earth's structure through earthquakes and sound waves, I didn't know this and it would make for an interesting 5-10 minute discussion)




Lesson 2 Pangaea and continents


  • Pangaea puzzle activity CG pg 24

  • Start with a demonstration of convection.
    Give each student a paper copy of the world map and have them cut them apart then see if they can fit them together. This kind of replicates the history of the pangaea theory. We can then discuss how this happened and start plate tectonics - starting with ridges where new rock is formed and rifts where boundaries spread.
    First guy to have this idea was laughed at. Continents are too big to move. Continental drift proven later by submaries. Scientists still don't know why the plates move - they think it might be convection, but this hasn't been proven.

    Continental Drift Theory
    Nice List of evidences for pangaea
  • Compare with current world map


  • Name continents and oceans.

Lesson 3 Plates, earthquakes

  • Plate movement experiments. Three muskateers bars (snack size). Collide two bars together. This is how mountains are formed. Show how pushing makes the mounts rise. Add some facts here about different mountain ranges and the plates below them.
  • To go along with the plate movement experiment scroll down on this page http://www.amnh.org/ology/index.php?channel=earth#channel and check-out "Plates on the Move" Great map, okay animations, fabulous, relevant stories. We could go through these and then do the corresponding movement experiment then move on to the next, etc.
  • Measure earthquakes
  • Tsunamis

Lesson 4 Volcanoes, mountains

  • Read Hill of Fire
  • Make a volcanic
  • Toothpaste eruption TESB pg 46
  • Mountain building GC pg 38
  • Soft boiled egg to show bulges
  • I think most everyone will have "made" a volcano erupt with baking soda and vinegar. Check out this site http://www.nationalgeographic.com/forcesofnature/interactive/index.html?section=v Start with section 4 which talks about the different types of volcanoes (I don't know that we would have to go over this with them at the computer, just as long as we were familiar and could discuss it with them. I would like to find better pictures that we could hand out of the different types, but maybe that is asking too much. Section 5 talks about what determines how a volcano erupts, the amount of trapped gas and the viscosity. I think we could use two different soda bottles to demonstrate the trapped gas (shake one, don't shake the other open in a bucket to contain the mess) and the difference between water and honey to give them a visual on viscosity (poured into the same bucket). I like the idea that at the end they can "create" their own eruptions and volcanoes on line and experiment with the difference a bit.

    Lesson 5 Fossils, layers of earth


  • Make sedimentary rocks. PG pg 35. Need sand, gravel or pebbles, some of the small sea shells, dry plaster of Paris, empty soda bottles, and water.
  • Make metamorphic Rocks - at beginning of class, give each child a zippy bag with some diiferent colored chocolate chips. Have each child sit on the baggie during class. If someone asks, explain that they are making metamorphic rocks with heat and pressure. After they have melted, take a rolling pin and layer them, roll, and slice. Fold, roll, slice again.

  • Make your own fossils. PG pg 69. Shallow trays, plaster of Paris, fern leaf. Make this in two steps one week and split it open the next week to see the imprint.

  • Simulate amber. PG pg 69. Liquid resin and hardener and a bug for inside.


Lesson 6 Rock cycle, Rock Identification








  • Erosion pg 50 TESB

  • Rock identification - using kit







Lesson 7 Local Geology PG









  • Read The Big Rock by Bruce Hiscock

  • Granite what it looks like and where to find it

  • Dolerite

  • Basalt

  • Limestone

  • Chalk

  • Sandstone

  • Schist

  • Gneiss

  • Gold and silver







Lesson 8 Minerals, panning for gold









  • http://mii.org/ has some great material

  • Learn about key minerals in the earth and the body

  • Maybe some history of alchemy

  • Pan for gold


Lesson 9 Water cycle







Lesson 10 Cloud Identification











Lesson 11 Climates, biomes















Other experiments





Glacier movement experiment. (need the reference)A glacier experiment with flubber



  • Crystal growing. Mix a hot saturated solution of soluble chemical such as alum or copper sulfate. Dangle a string in it and allow the solution to cool slowly. Crystals will form on the string and side of the container. Scrape off all but the biggest crystal and repeat. This only happens in nature as molten rock is starting to cool. PG pg 22, 23 has this experiment and guide to using crystalline structure to identify minerals.