Soil Erosion

Today my students participated in two activities that demonstrated soil erosion and how we can prevent it from occurring.   For the first activity we went outside and watched it 'rain' (poured water from a watering can) on bare soil.  We observed the run off and determined that we lost quite a bit of soil.  Before the second rain, we brainstormed ways to prevent the erosion.  They decided we needed plants so we placed grass clippings on the bare soil.  The second time it 'rained', the run off was much cleaner. 

The second activity was a conservation play.  The objective of the play is to show the importance of conservation.  The students have different roles to play such as raindrops, soil, lake and conservation.  The first time through, there isn't any conservation so the raindrops move quickly and they take the soil with them.  When they end up at the lake, the soil stays in the lake while the raindrops end up in the ocean.  This makes the lake dirty and the plants die because the soil was washed away.  The second time through, the conservation student only lets the raindrops go one at a time so they can't pick up the soil students.  The lake stays clean and the plants survive.  After the play, the students watched a powerpoint showing various conservation techniques. 

The lake is clean!!! :)