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Changing the Shape of LandActivity for Kids

Water Erosion Model DIY

Duration: 15-20 min
Difficulty: Medium
Cost: $0 to $5

Build a model to test ways to slow down erosion!

Visit The Full Lesson Download Instructions as PDF

Material List

1Stack of books
1Watering can with water
2Cake pans
2Bread pans
1Pack of soil
8Plastic forks

Instructions

1Fill two cake pans with an equal amount of soil and carefully pat it down a little.
2Lean the cake pan on a pile of books and lean the other side in the bread pan.
3In one of them, stick forks into the soil, this will act like trees.
4Slowly pour water onto the soil on one side of the bread pan.
5Watch it flow down into the cake pan.
6Observe how much soil was eroded away.
7You can test other ways to slow down or stop erosion using this model.

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How It Works

Erosion is when tiny pieces of the Earth’s surface are moved from one place to another. This is usually caused by moving water or wind. In our model we used flowing water to move soil. Plants are a great way to slow down or stop erosion and the forks we stuck into the soil acted like the roots of a plant to help hold the soil in place.