Georgia S5E1.b
The Standard
Develop simple interactive models to collect data that illustrate how changes in surface features are/were caused by constructive and/or destructive processes.
Georgia Standards of Excellence for Science · Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to identify surface features on the Earth caused by constructive and/or destructive processes.
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students build and use simple models of erosion, deposition, weathering, earthquakes, or volcanic activity. They measure a surface before and after a change. They use the data to explain whether land was built up, worn down, or both.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can choose materials and create a model that changes when a variable is adjusted. They record measurements or observations before and after each test. They use the results to explain how a landform changed.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think constructive means helpful and destructive means harmful. They often confuse weathering, which breaks material apart, with erosion, which moves it. They may overlook that deposition can occur during the same event as erosion.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Sketch a stream-table model that could show erosion and deposition. Label one variable to change, two measurements to collect, and where land might be removed or deposited.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Build stream tables with trays, sand, cups, and water, then measure channel width and sediment buildup after two flow rates.
Ask students to write: How can one process both remove land in one place and build land in another?
Sort process cards into builds land, wears land down, or both, then defend each placement with model data.
Compare dated photos of a local riverbank or Georgia beach, then estimate land gained or lost using a grid overlay.
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Printable S5E1.b Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to S5E1.b, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
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Related Standards
- S6E5.e
Develop a model to demonstrate how natural processes (weathering, erosion, and deposition) and human activity change rocks and the surface of the Earth.
- S6E5
Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to show how Earth's surface is formed.
- S5E1.a
Construct an argument supported by scientific evidence to identify surface features (examples could include deltas, sand dunes, mountains, volcanoes) as being c...
- S5E1
Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to identify surface features on the Earth caused by constructive and/or destructive processes.
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