1. Constructive and Destructive Processes
K – 5 Science Endorsement Unit Presentation
By Meredith Argo
5th grade teacher at Mt. Bethel Elementary

2. Goals of the Teaching Unit
Concepts that will be targeted in this lesson plan
The Earth is constantly changing.
The Earth’s landforms were created by weathering and erosion.
Essential Questions for this lesson plan:
How do weathering and erosion affect the Earth’s landforms?
Are weathering and erosion constructive or destructive?

3. Standards Addressed Georgia Performance Standards
S5E1a Constructive Processes
Identify surface features caused by constructive processes
S5E1b Destructive Processes
Identify and find examples of surface features caused by destructive processes.

4. Lessons to Develop Big Idea
UNIT PRE-ASSESSMENT: Student will sort a list of processes found on the board into one of three categories: constructive, destructive, or both.
ENGAGE: Pass out pictures of the Grand Canyon (several views per table, all same pics per table) and the Grand Canyon Student Page. Have students work in teams and discuss and answer the questions on the Grand Canyon Student page.
EXPLORE: Use non-fiction text on the Grand Canyon to introduce the formation of the Grand Canyon. Then students will complete in groups the Wind and Water Checkpoint Labs A – D (From Picture Perfect Science Lessons).
A: How does water carry rocks and soil?
B: How can water causes changes in rocks?
C: How can wind cause changes in rocks?
D: How does water carry rocks and soil?

5. Lessons to Develop Big Idea
EXPLAIN: Students will make vocabulary connections using their lab results and the remainder of the non-fiction text.
EXTEND: Students will sort pictures of other landforms into weathering or erosion using new knowledge from text and from labs. Students will use I Pads and go on a scavenger hunt to find examples around the school of weathering and erosion. They will snap pictures of those examples and create a group video with labels of what type of process they found.
EVALUATE: Students will create a brochure to demonstrate what they learned about weathering and erosion and how the concepts can be applied to the formation of the Grand Canyon

6. Addressing Misconceptions
Changes to the Earth’s surface only happen quickly
Weathering and erosion are the same thing
Rocks are here to stay
Earth’s forces can only destroy
Truths
Changes to the Earth’s surface can happen fast or slow (addressed in non-fiction reading)
Weathering and erosion are both processes that change the Earth’s surface, but weathering is the process of breaking rock into sediment while erosion is the process of carrying that sediment away (addressed in labs)
Rocks are subject to weathering, destructive processes and the rock cycle (addressed in labs and non-fiction reading)
Earth’s forces can be constructive, destructive, or both (addressed in reading, discussion, and later in unit)

7. Cross-Curricular Integration
Literacy: Reading two non-fiction texts to support science standards and address text features of the books while introducing or using them in accessing information
Technology: Students will create brochures on Microsoft Publisher. Students will use I Pads to collect pictures of weathering and erosion around the school and create a video.
Social Studies: showing the Grand Canyon’s surface feature changes over three decades; explain what decade means
Math: folding sheet into thirds, discuss what thirds are while folding occurs, what things come in thirds

8. Unit Assessments
Pre-assessment: the unit pre-assessment will be the Earth’s processes sort to determine where students are in the understanding of what constructive and destructive processes are.
FA: New Vocabulary Words sheet will assess student’s pre and post knowledge of vocabulary.
FA: Correcting or adding more detail to the questions originally asked on the Grand Canyon Student page.
SA: Grand Canyon brochure will assess how students apply weathering and erosion to the formation of the Grand Canyon, as well as changes that may occur every day in the Grand Canyon as a result of weathering and erosion.

9. Links/Credits to Materials
Materials found in Picture Perfect Science Lessons by Karen Rohrich Ansberry and Emily Morgan
Show Grand Canyon’s surface changes over 3 decades via satellite:
Weathering and Erosion Rap: Erosion%252C-Deposition- Song/dbbb52480b a8b9c917e70dbf
Real pictures of landforms affected by erosion: tent/visualizations/es1205/es1205page01.cfm

10. Resources and Lesson Plan for This Unit
5E Model Lesson plan covering 6 days
Formative Assessment Student Questions
Formative Assessment New Vocabulary List
Checkpoints Lab A and B
Checkpoints Lab C
Checkpoints Lab D
Summative Assessment Grand Canyon Brochure
Summative Assessment Rubric
Picture Sort for all landform sorts
YouTube Video for quick teaching a decade
List of things that come in three’s for quick teaching thirds
Pre-Assessment Sort, Day 1

11. Additional Resources for Entire Constructive and Destructive Unit
variety of landforms
Graham Crackers and Icing Plate Movement
Video of kids doing the lab
(Dino Plate Tectonics)
Picture of kids making earth’s layers
Picture of kids doing checkpoints for erosion lab and another picture
CER Framework organizer for beach erosion
Faults, Earthquakes and Tsunamis pictures
Landform Bingo
Constructive and Destructive Weathering Centers
Sinkholes Inquiry
Holes in the earth
Jekyll Island student page for beach erosion and human impact
Formative Assessment and Summative Assessment