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Earth Tests at Desert Arch Camp

Investigate water, wind, ice, and roots using desert observations, controlled tests, and soil-movement graphs.

Grade 4ScienceInteractive · Printable

Aligned to4-ESS2-1

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What’s included

Single worksheet
Auto-graded online
1 NGSS standard
Printable answer key
13 questions
Classroom-ready

Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 4
Subject: Science
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Circle the answer, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students compare measurements to explain how water and wind move soil.
Students use crack measurements to explain how freezing water and growing roots can weather rock.
Students distinguish weathering from erosion using investigation evidence.

How to use

Read the investigation together, then have students work from the graphs and measurements. Discuss which claims the evidence supports and which need more testing.

Curriculum

NGSS standard covered

4-ESS2-1

Observe or measure how water, ice, wind or plants weather and erode rock and soil.

Preview

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Name Date

Earth Tests at Desert Arch Camp

Use investigation results to explain changes in desert rock and soil.

Investigate Moving Water

Read the investigation. Use the water graph for Questions 1–4. Keep the investigation handy for the other sections.

Four Investigations at Desert Arch Camp

A fourth-grade class visited Desert Arch Camp, a research station beside a dry desert wash. A wash is a channel that sometimes carries rainwater. Students investigated changes in nearby rock and soil. Weathering breaks rock into smaller pieces. Erosion moves rock pieces or soil to another place. The class used separate tests to investigate different causes of change.

1. Water test: Students put 100 grams of dry soil into each of two identical trays. They tilted both trays to the same slope. They poured 400 milliliters of water onto each tray from the same height. For the slow flow, they poured steadily for 40 seconds. For the fast flow, they poured steadily for 10 seconds. They caught the water and soil leaving each tray, let the collected soil air-dry, and weighed it. The water graph shows their results.

2. Wind test: Students spread 100 grams of dry soil in each of two identical flat trays. They mixed 10 milliliters of water into one tray to make its soil damp. Both trays stayed level. Inside a clear enclosure that kept flying soil away from faces, an adult used the same fan setting, distance, and time for each tray. Students collected, air-dried, and weighed the soil blown out of each tray. The wind graph shows their results.

3. Ice test: Desert nights can fall below freezing. An adult selected six sandstone pieces of similar size, each with a crack 1 millimeter wide. Each day, the adult added the same amount of water to every crack. Three pieces were frozen and thawed once a day. Three stayed at room temperature. After ten days, the frozen pieces had cracks 2, 3, and 2 millimeters wide. The other cracks were still 1 millimeter wide. The adult handled the cold materials. Water takes up more space when it freezes.

4. Root observations: Students also compared dated photographs of two nearby sandstone cracks. One held a growing shrub root; the other had no root. Over six months, the root became thicker and its crack widened from 1 to 4 millimeters. The crack without a root stayed 1 millimeter wide. Students did not change either plant or rock.