Mississippi Science ESS.2B.7
The Standard
- ESS.2B
- Students will develop an understanding of the history and evolution of the earth.
Enrichment: Use an engineering design process to design a model to simulate the formation of caves and karst topography by groundwater. *
2026 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for Science · Earth Structure and History
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students set a goal for a model, build it, test it with water, and revise it. They show how groundwater can dissolve rock, leave an underground opening, and sometimes cause the ground above to sink.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students can explain what each part of their model represents. They use test results to improve it and explain that real limestone caves form much more slowly.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think water simply washes solid limestone away, rather than slowly dissolving it. They may call a surface sinkhole a cave or assume every cave causes a sinkhole.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Draw a model showing water entering a rock crack, forming a cave, and possibly causing a sinkhole. Name a material you would use for the rock and one change you would make if no cavity formed.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Build a clear-cup model with sugar cubes under sand; drip water through it, then revise the design to show a cavity and sinkhole.
Ask students: How is dissolving sugar with water like groundwater forming limestone caves, and where does the model get the process wrong?
Give pairs cards labeled cracks, acidic groundwater, dissolved limestone, cave space, and roof collapse; have them order and explain the cards.
On a printed Florida sinkhole map, choose a site for a new school and write one reason to check the ground first.
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Printable ESS.2B.7 Worksheet
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