Laura Gibson, Round Rock ISD

 The student is expected to interpret topographic maps and satellite views to identify land and erosional features and predict how these features may be reshaped by weathering.

 How well will YOU do on the STAAR test?

 Make a Fist with your non-dominant hand and hold it at eye level, fingers and thumb facing away from the body.  Pretend you are an ant crawling across your fist. What landform does the ridge of your knuckles look like?  How are your knuckles and a mountain range similar?

 Lay the plastic wrap horizontally across the knuckles of your fisted hand, and tuck it into the sides, holding it in place with your thumb.  Using a marker, draw  a line around each of the 4 knuckles across the top of the fist.  a 2 nd line around the outside of the first line on each knuckle.  one line around all 4 knuckles.

 Observations  What do you notice about your creation?  How does yours compare with those around you?  Remove the plastic wrap, cut it down to ‘size’, and tape it into your Investigation Guide.

 What does your fist represent or model?  Is this a 3-dimensional model or a 2- dimensional model?  How many peaks does your mountain have?  Does your plastic wrap map tell you this information? How?  If you were asked to make a map like this of the top of your desk, how would that map compare to the map you made of your fist?

Refer to the Student Guide. Silently read the Background Information. With your team, complete the Explore and Explain sections of your investigation. Do not proceed past this point.

 Using the tub of Play-Do at your table, create a ‘mountain’ that is similar to the mountain in the plastic box. Create it on your tray.  Make sure your mountain includes a valley and a ridge.

 Primary Investigator will get eye-level with the mountain while the Materials Manager slowly and gently rotate the tray with the mountain on top of it.  Primary Investigator will use a pencil to trace a line about ½ down the mountain as the Materials Manager continues to rotate the tray.  What have you just created on your mountain?

 Standing above your mountain, observe the shape of the contour line you have just created on your mountain.  Sketch this shape on your Student Guide on the very bottom of the page.  Label this sketch “BEFORE.”

 Now, consider this:  As rain falls on the mountain, what path will it take as it travels? Discuss this with your team. Identify possible paths.  Where will the most runoff occur?  Since Water is the GREATEST AGENT OF EROSION, where will the most erosion occur?  What will the effect on the valley be?

 Since we know that the area affected the most by erosion will be the valley and the steeper areas, change the areas of your mountain to reflect these changes that will occur because of erosion.  Then, repeat the procedure of creating a contour line at the exact elevation at which your created the first line.

 Stand over your mountain, and observe the shape of this new contour line.  Sketch this shape at the bottom of the page next the BEFORE sketch. Label this sketch “AFTER”.

 Compare the shapes of the two sketches.  What are the differences?  How was the ‘land’ reshaped by erosion?  How was this change reflected in the shape of your contour?

 As a team, work on the Elaborate section of your Student Guide.  Before moving on, you must receive confirmation from your teacher that you may move on to the next section – Evaluate!

 Make your fist again, just like you did at the beginning of this lesson, and hold it at eye level.  Using a marker, create a topographic map on your fist, drawing lines of equal elevation starting from the top ‘peak.’  Draw a contour line for approximately every centimeter in elevation.  When done, flatten out your hand to observe your Knuckle Mountain topographic map.

 The student is expected to interpret topographic maps and satellite views to identify land and erosional features and predict how these features may be reshaped by weathering.  How did we do?  Did we answer the Essential Questions?