Kids College
Summer 2002
Russ Colson, MSUM, notes
12-15 hour unit on reading stories in sediments and sedimentary rocks
for kids 9-14 years old
Ideal sequence:
Day 1:
Go outside and look at sediment (sandy, gravelly). What story does it tell?
Shoreline topography and sediment experiment
Read “They lived in the Ice Age”
Coloring activity.
Van trip to beach scarp and lake bed.
Day 2:
River slope vs tranport Experiment
or
River velocity vs sediment size observation (preference)
depending on weather.
Read “Dragon in the Rocks”
What do rocks tell us - activity
Day 3:
River slope vs tranport Expt (preference)
or
River velocity vs sediment size observation
depending on weather.
Read Chapter 3, “Dinosaurs walked here”.
Stories and evidence activity
Day 4:
Story events, which came first.
Chapter 2, Dinosaurs walked here and other selected readings.
Sky activities.
Activities:
Experimental activities (can be used during rain storms)
Shoreline topography and sediment type experiment.
(Materials needed for 14 students working in groups of 3: 5 stream table basins, 5 batches of mixed silt, sand, gravel, 5 buckets to carry water, lots of paper towels for accidents, paper and pencils.)
A plastic basin is filled with a mixture of silt, sand, and gravel (on one side) and water (on the other side). The larger the basin, the better it will work. A small stream table for example, held at a slight slope, works well. Students will gently slosh water against the mixture of silt, sand, and gravel, simulating waves against a shoreline. They will do this for about 5 minutes (taking turns so each person in the group gets to slosh).
Students will analyze the result in two ways.
1) Draw a picture showing how the shape of the shoreline changes. Younger students may need some hints, since the best perspective to illustrate the change will be a cross-sectional view of the shoreline, not a straight-on view. However, let them do their best before forcing hints on them. The change should be something like the following:
Starting slope Slope after sloshing
2) Describe the difference between the sediment out in the middle of the water vs sediment at the simulated shoreline. Talk about the difference with their group members. Write down the difference.
Students should recognize that the sediment in the middle of the water is muddy, whereas that at the shoreline is more sandy. The bigger sediment stays at the shoreline.
Discussion:
a) Why does the bigger stuff end up at the beach, and the smaller stuff out in the water? (the bigger stuff doesn’t get washed away by the waves, whereas the waves wash the mud out into the water).
b) If there used to be a lake someplace, but the lake is gone now, how could you figure out it used to be there? How could you read its story?
(look for mud out in the basin of where the lake used to be, sand at the beach)
(look for a steep place and a shallow place, like on the beach in your experiment.
River slope/velocity versus sediment transport experiment.
(Materials needed for 14 students working in groups of 3: 5 flumes (downspouts), 45-50 blocks of uniform thickness of about ¾ inch, buckets to carry water, basins to catch water, 20 large particles of gravel (for example, about 1 ¼ inch), 20 smaller particles of gravel (for example, about 5/8 inch), 5 copies of blank graphs, 5 copies of example graph, pencils.)
Students will experimentally determine the slope required in a stream for gravel of different sizes to be washed downstream by the water. Two different sizes of gravel will be provided, which students will need to measure. Using 3 or 4 pieces of only one size of gravel at a time, placed in a flume (using a gutter downspout as a flume), students will gradually increase the slope of the
flume, pouring water down it, until the gravel washes downstream. The gravel should be placed about half-way down the flume and the water poured in at the top (we aren’t interested in how a giant waterfall moves the gravel, but rather how a flowing stream moves it…..we will discuss with the students some of these experimental considerations). The observations for each slope of the experiment will be simply “gravel washed down” or “gravel didn’t wash down”. The results can be portrayed in a graph like the following that attached.
Discussion.
a) If have a steep, mountains stream, what kind of sediment at the bottom? (big particles) If have a slow, sluggish stream (like Red River) what kind of sediment at the bottom? (mud, silt)
b) Think of the beach experiment. Where is water moving more? (beach, not out in water) Where are the bigger particles? (where it is moving more, on the beach)
c) Suppose you find a dinosaur bone, and want to tell a story about where the dinosaur lived. How might you tell if he lived in a swamp or up in the big hills (hint: where will water flow fastest)? (look at size of sediment particles in the rock the dinosaur is found in- this is shale from an actual dinosaur site in South Dakota).
Example Graph (but with arbitrary made-up measurements)
Actual Graphs Constructed by kids after doing the experiments.
Observational Activities:
Lake Agassiz and beach story:
(materials: some kind of sampling device, like a coring auger, paper and pencil to sketch topography, magnifying glasses)
Collect a sample of sediment from out in the valley (lake bottom) and from a beach ridge. This will require travel by van to two different locations. At each location, think about the topography and the sediment. Feel the sediment and look at it under a magnifying glass. Sketch the topography and makes notes about the sediment. What story does it tell about what used to be here?
(lake, shoreline, compare with topography and sediment in the basin-sloshing experiment)
This activity needs to follow the basin-sloshing experiment.
River deposit observation:
Materials: bug spray, floating blocks on string, stop watches,
Walk along the Buffalo River and observe the sizes of sediment particles in areas where the river is running fast or slow. Where are the bigger particles found? Where are the smaller particles found? Using a piece of would or packing material on a string (so we don’t pollute), try to measure how fast the stream is flowing (the kids will need help with this concept, but we can lead them through it…… they need to measure either how long it takes it to float a know distance (e.g. the length of the string), or to measure how far it floats in a given amount of time (e.g. 6 seconds). We will use the first method. We will talk about which is faster, if it takes less time or if it takes more time, and other aspects of the experiment. Then we will talk about the size of sediment in each place. This activity can either follow or precede the flume experiment.
Interpreting what rocks tell us
materials: One Edmontosaurus dinosaur bone (LOOK BUT DON”T TOUCH), several claystones like the Edmontosaurus was found in. One plastic model of a triceratops. Several sandstones. Book with picture of Edmontosaurus. Crayons and pencils with lots of paper.
Show students the particles of sediment in the rock, scraping a knife across the claystone to show the powdery mud particles. Crumble some sandstone to show the sand particles.
One of these creatures likes to live in swamps along the seashore. The other likes to live in hilly areas. The Edmontosaurus was found in the shale (muddy rock), and the triceratops in the sandy rock (often).
Draw a picture of where each might have lived, showing the picture of the creature in his favorite place.
Discussion:
The Edmontosaurus bone comes from South Dakota. What does that tell you about what South Dakota used to be like? What story can you tell of South Dakota?
(once a swampy shoreline there!)
Story events, which thing came first.
(materials: 2 cut bank puzzle kits, lots of paper, pencils, and crayons,
1) Walk to look at the cut bank. Which came first, stuff at bottom or at the top? Talk about how geologist tell stories of which thing came first, which came second and so on, not just what happened at one time.
2) Cut bank sequence puzzle (I only have 2 kits, so two groups can work on this at a time)
3) Writing a story: We tell them the following “evidence” on which to base their story. They need to take notes about the evidence for use in their story. Suppose you find a rock with sand and gravel in it, with tree leaves and dinosaur bones. On top of that rock is a sand, with sea shells in it. On top of that is a shale (made of mud), with shark teeth.
Write a story about what happened through time to the place where the dinosaurs used to live. Draw pictures to illustrate your story.
Students not working on the cut bank puzzle can work on their story.
Reading/coloring Activities:
Dragon in the Rocks by _____ Day,
(prior to interpreting the type of place the dinosaurs lived in)
talk about mysteries: how did the fish get so high above the sea? How did it get into the rock? What stories does it tell about what used to be?
They Lived in the Ice Age by Julian May
(Prior to doing the Lake Agassiz beach stuff)
How many know there used to be glaciers here? How do we know it? Anyone’s parents old enough to remember?
How many have heard of Lake Agassiz? How know it used to be here? Which came first, lake or glaciers? (YOU will figure this out this week, which came first, that’s a story you can read right here near the science center).
Dinosaurs Walked Here and Other Stories Fossils Tell: by Patricia Lauber
Chapter 3 Layers of Fossils
and
Chapter 2 Gnats, Mammoths, and Saber-toothed Tigers
2 coloring pages: Pages 2 and 3 from Lake Agassiz Beach Ridges, A coloring book for children.
Dinosaurs by Daniel Cohen, various short blurbs on different dinosaurs Probably won’t use this one.
Stories and evidence Activity
(matierals: paper and pencil, crayons)
Write a short story about something that might have happened in Earth’s past. Illustrate it.
Then, Write down what things you might find in rock that would tell you that story REALLY HAPPENED!
Discuss it.
Sky activities:
Materials: pictures of Moon and Clouds, paper and pencil.
What do we see in the sky? (have them list things)
Which ones are farther away? (how do you know….superposition)
What do things in the sky tell us? (weather, movement of earth in space, understanding of seasons)
Look at the face of the Moon and clouds. Key process on Moon, meteorites and volcanism make dark circles. Key to clouds What clouds tell us about weather: cirrus, cumulus, stratus.
I probably won’t do this, Moon is near full so won’t be up in our time window. Clouds hard to do without having more time than I want to take from other activities. Will do this as opportunity presents itself and/or as time permits.