Cause and Effect

Concept MappingUsing Web 2.0

Weathering, Erosion, and Deposition

A lesson using on-line tools for greater understanding

Subject: Earth Science
Grade Level: 6th
Teacher Contact: Tim Benett

System Requirements: Internet Access

Teacher Experience

What’s your strategy for cementing the concepts of weathering, erosion, and deposition into the brains of your 6th grade students? Bringing 21st Century technology into the classroom to help further the understanding of these relationships, definitions, and differences, students can usemany technological resources to assist in the presentation, explanation, and understanding of these concepts. Video, animations from the web, and a wonderful mind mapping tool found at can all assist in building knowledge with the relationships between weathering, erosion and deposition.

General instructions:

Learning and experience a web-based, interactive 2.0 tool for concept mapping found on the Internet called bubb.us, students will define each of the 3 terms, give examples, and show how they work with each other to reshape the Earth’s surface.

First, let’s explore what this tool can do for learning. What is bubbl.us? It is a simple to use, on-line, free web 2.0 tool for creating graphic organizers or mind maps that can be saved, posted, printed, and shared by students for a variety of curricular needs.

Trying out the tool

  1. Navigate to (notice I did not use www). For this activity, you do not need to create an account because you are just learning. Click on the Button “Start Brainstorming” to begin.

To experience this tool from a learning perspective, try to recreate the image below:


  1. How do I use in my classroom? The first step is to create an account. Log in to the site and register yourself with the website. Remember to write down your codes below for future reference.

User name: ______Password:______

  1. Now practice again by drawing comparisons between the three main types of volcanoes – shield, cinder cone, and composite. Include the type of eruptions that create each (quiet, explosive, or both) and what their profile is like in nature (somewhat flat, tall and conical, medium). Just click and get started!
  • Save the diagram on the Bubbl.us site
  • Export the diagram and use in a word document

Startup needs for student use are:

1)Create enough accounts to allow the students to log in prior to using the lesson

2)Present a basic lesson on concept mapping the power or organizing the learning

3)Present bubbl.us as a tool for concept mapping include

  1. Logging into the site and what account they should use
  2. How to creating a concept diagram using the site
  3. How to save the diagram on the bubbl.us site
  4. How to export the diagram to use on a word document
  1. Other ideas for using in my classroom: the rock cycle, water cycle, volcano types, stages of volcanoes, plate boundaries, types of heat transfer, mechanical weathering, chemical weathering…


Bubbl.us Activity Sheet

  1. Login at: with:

user name: ______

password: ______

Click Sign In

  1. Once you are logging in, you you will see window area with the bubble “Start Here” on it:
  1. Replace “Start Here” with the word “Weathering”.
  2. Click the icon showing on the right of the bubble to add a sibling bubble.
  3. Name the 2nd bubble “Erosion”.
  4. Add a 3rd bubble called “Deposition”.
  5. Save you work by entering a title in the upper right of the screen. Name your work by your class Period. The name will appear in the area below where you see Empty here.
  1. Add bubbles to each of the three Parent bubbles based on the directions from your teacher.

Note: Each bubble has editing tools at the corners. When you hold your mouse over the bubble, you will see the icons and titles.

Concept Mapping – Teacher PracticePage 1