This lesson will explore a phenomenon Shoreline erosionwhere students learn how bodies of water, such as rivers, sculpt the landscape around them, transport and deposit sediment, support the aquatic ecosystem, and provide natural and man-made ways to interact with human activities and the environment.
- Known How rivers have sculpted the landscape, eroding beaches
- Understands How are dams created and removed?
- be able to Model erosion and deposition through flow table and simulation experiments
View the entire lesson plan including teacher background information, worksheets and more below or Download for free here.
Activity 1:
This activity is a video discussion of A Great Lakes now slice About how the Department of Natural Resources is removing old and obsolete dams to combat climate change. During the video, they have to write down four things they took away from the video using 4 Summary protocol notes.
Watch the Great Lakes clip now
Activity 2:
In this activity, students will read about how the 2020 Midland Dam failure allowed parasitic sea lampreys to invade local rivers and what local communities have been doing to address the problem and prevent ecosystem disruption by invasive species.
Read about Sea lampreys in rivers
Activity 3:
In this activity, students will experiment with different factors to see how they affect beach erosion.
Activity 4:
In this engineering challenge, students will explore the impact of dams on river ecosystems and model the process of building and removing dams.
Modeling of dam construction and removal
Activity 5:
This activity is a video discussion of A Great Lakes now slice About how residents in Ogden Dunes are fighting beach erosion by building a barrier made of huge boulders piled on the beach. During the video, they have to write down four things they took away from the video using 4 Summary protocol notes.
Watch the Great Lakes clip now
Activity 6:
In this activity, students will physically model a stream by engineering a stream table using household materials in order to visualize and understand the processes of erosion, sedimentation, and landscape formation.
Learn all about Episode 2311: Rivers of Water and Sand on this month’s landing page.
If you use this lesson or any of its activities with your learners, we’d love to hear about it! communication Contact us with any feedback or questions at: Great Lakes now@DPTV.org
