Georgia S6E5.e
The Standard
Develop a model to demonstrate how natural processes (weathering, erosion, and deposition) and human activity change rocks and the surface of the Earth.
Georgia Standards of Excellence for Science · Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to show how Earth's surface is formed.
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students create and use a model that shows rock breaking apart, sediment moving, and sediment settling. They also show how actions such as construction, farming, or mining can speed up or redirect these changes.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students correctly label weathering, erosion, and deposition in their model. They explain what causes each change, track where sediment moves, and identify how a human action affects the result.
Common Misconceptions
- Students often treat weathering and erosion as the same process or think deposition means sediment disappears. They may also assume all human activity causes erosion, rather than recognizing actions that slow or redirect it.
How to Assess It
- Give students a diagram of rain falling on a cleared hillside with soil collecting near a stream. Ask them to label weathering, erosion, and deposition, then explain one effect of clearing the land.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Shape sand in a tray, spray water uphill, and mark where sediment breaks loose, moves, and settles.
Ask students to explain how removing plants from a hillside could change erosion and deposition after heavy rain.
Sort scenario cards into weathering, erosion, deposition, or human activity, then defend one disputed choice to a partner.
Compare photos of a construction site before and after rain, then sketch one barrier that could reduce soil movement.
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Printable S6E5.e Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to S6E5.e, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
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Related Standards
- S5E1.b
Develop simple interactive models to collect data that illustrate how changes in surface features are/were caused by constructive and/or destructive processes.
- S6E5
Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to show how Earth's surface is formed.
- S6E5.c
Construct an explanation of how to classify rocks by their formation and how rocks change through geologic processes in the rock cycle.
- S3E1.c
Make observations of the local environment to construct an explanation of how water and/or wind have made changes to soil and/or rocks over time.
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