This unit introduces students to Geomorphology
which is the study of landforms. They will learn about
common landforms and how they are created.

UNIT GOALS:

• Students will see how river channels change through repetition of experiments with different variables.
• Students will be shown how different valleys are formed.
• Instructors will explain how fan shaped landforms are made.
• Students will be shown how rocks react to different tectonic forces.
• Instructors will explain how plateaus are formed.
• Using all information about landforms, students will play the classic memory game.

UNIT ACTIVITIES:

1. Changing Channels in Midstream: Uses experiments to see how different variables affect sediment movement forming stream channels: straight, meandering and braided.

2. Varying Valleys: Uses experiments to show how three valley types are formed: U-valleys, V-valleys and plain valleys.

3. Deposit a slice of pie: Uses experiments to demonstrate how triangle shaped landforms are created: alluvial fan, delta, mud and debris flows.

4. Pushing and Pulling Mountains: Demonstrates how some mountain ranges are created by extension and compression forces acting on the crust.

5. Planar Plateaus: Allows students to see how flat-topped mountains are formed.

6. Earth's pimple problem: Teaches about the three types of volcanoes and what causes them to form.

7. Remembering Landforms: Is the culminating activity of this unit. It uses pictures, landform names and processes that form each landform to play a memory match game.

GEODETECTIVE Home - - Landforms Kid's Page

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