Grade 5:
Landforms Unit
Overview
This
unit is a Full Option Science System (FOSS) kit created by
the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California, Berkeley. It
is published by Delta Education. The Landforms Module (5 activities)
develops concepts of physical geography and mapping. Students will
experience and experiment with Overlay Grid Maps, Erosion, Deposition,
Stream Flow, Slope, Making a Topographic Map, Aerial Photos, and Drawing a
Landform Map.
Building Successful Foundations in Science - Elementary science
integrates and organizes student scientific knowledge through a foundation
made up of 'Bricks" of Big Ideas put together with the "Mortar" of Unifying
Concepts. |
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Enduring Understandings
- important ideas that students should carry with them years beyond the
instruction received this year.
- The surface of the Earth has identifiable features.
- During a flood, a stream's velocity increases
dramatically, especially with steeper slopes. This increases erosion and
deposition, which can affect human developed areas.
- Water is essential for life and is responsible for
shaping land.
Essential Questions
- most important “big picture” questions students should be able to answer
after completing learning activities.
- What are some of the major features of the
Earth's surface?
- How is water essential to living things and in
what ways does water affect the shape of land?
- How would a flood affect a human developed area?
 Highest
Frequency Standards
 High
Frequency Standards
 Other
Standards & E-skills
Standard 1:
Students understand the processes of scientific investigation and
design, conduct, communicate about, and evaluate such investigations. (1.a.,
1.b., 1.c., 1.d., 1.e., 1.f., 1.g., 1.h., 1.j.)
Standard 2: Students know and understand common properties, forms, and
changes in matter and energy. (2.1.a., 2.3.a., 2.3.b.)
Standard 3: Students know and understand the processes and interactions
of earth's systems and the structure and the dynamics of earth and other
objects in space. (4.1.c., 4.1.d.)
Standard 5: Students know and understand interrelationships among
science, technology, and human activity and how they can affect the world.
(5.d.)
Standard 6: Students understand that science involves a particular way
of knowing and understand common connections among scientific disciplines.
(6.a., 6.d., 6.e., 6.f.)
Students are expected to:
- Gain experience with models and maps.
- Gain experience with the concepts of erosion and deposition.
- Observe the effect of water on surface features of the land, using a
stream table.
- Use group processes to plan and conduct stream table investigations.
- Relate processes that they observe in the stream table models to
processes that created famous landforms.
- Become familiar with topographic maps and some of the techniques
used to create them.
- Gain experience with the concepts of contour and elevation.
- Use measurements in the context of science.
- Acquire vocabulary associated with landforms and the processes that
create landforms.
- Gain experiences that contribute to their understanding of several
pervasive themes that point out connections among scientific ideas:
Pattern, Structure, Interaction, and Change.
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Sample Units
District
11 Diamond Units/Lessons Overview - includes information about the
purpose, goals and structure of these sample instructional units:
Science Leveled Readers With Audio
Unit Vocabulary
Vocabulary: fossils
and fossil evidence, erosion, weathering, slope, canyon, valley,
deposition, headwaters, river mouth,
Model -a representation of a object or process, boundary - the limit
or border of an area or region
Structure - something built by people, like a building
Map - a drawing of an area, usually as though you were looking
straight down on it
Cartographer - a person who makes maps
Grid - a network of vertical and horizontal lines that form squares
Symbol -a color, shape or texture used to represent something else
on a map, such as a building, road, or landform
Key - an explanation of symbols used on a map
Drainage basin - a system of rivers and streams that drains an area
like the Colorado Plateau
Erosion - wearing away earth materials by water, wind, or ice
Landform - a shape or feature of the earth’s surface, like a delta
or canyon
Delta - a fan-shaped deposit of earth materials at a mouth of stream
Plateau - a large, nearly level area that has been lifted above the
surrounding area
Deposition - the process by which eroded earth materials settle out
in another place
Sediments - eroded earth materials that have been deposited
Basin - a low area in which sediments are often deposited
Channel - the course or path the water takes in a stream or river
Meander - a curve or loop in a channel
Slope - the angle or slant of a stream channel or land surface
Alluvial fan - a fan-shaped landform deposited at the end of a steep
canyon where the slope becomes flatter; they are usually found in
arid regions, like Death Valley
Flood - a very heavy flow of water, which is greater than the normal
flow of water and goes over the stream’s normal channel
Flash flood - rises and falls rapidly with little or no advance
warning, usually as the result of very heavy rainfall over a
relatively small area; flash floods can be caused by sudden heavy
rainfall, dam failure, or the thaw of an ice jam
Levee - an embankment along a stream that protects land from
flooding; levees can be natural or constructed dam - a construction
or wall across a river that holds back the water flowing through the
river, creating a reservoir or Lake
Floodplain - the area around a river that is covered by water
flowing over the riverbank during a flood
Base - the bottom of a mountain
Contour line - a line on a topographic map that connects points of
equal elevation
Contour interval - the difference in elevation between contour
lines
Elevation - a vertical distance, or height, above sea level
Peak - the highest point of a mountain
Sea level - the average height of the ocean’s surface, zero
elevation
Topographic map - uses contour lines to show the shape and elevation
of land’s surface
Profile - a side view or cross-section of a landform such as a
mountain
Bench mark - a surveyor’s marker usually placed permanently in the
ground at a known position an elevation
Intermittent stream - has water flowing in it only during certain
times of the year
Perennial stream - always has water flowing in it
Ridge - a narrow area of high land between two valleys
Glacier - a large mass or body of moving ice
Valley - a low area between higher areas through which a river or
stream often flows
Interpret - (a map) to figure out the symbols, textures, colors, and
patterns to put together an image of the land covered by the map
Aerial photograph - a photograph of the earth’s surface taken from
an airplane or spacecraft flying above the earth
Scale - the ratio between a measured distance on a map to the actual
distance in the real world
Surveyor - a person who measures and marks the distance, elevation,
position, and boundaries of land areas
Bar scale - a ruler line on a topographic map that shows the scale
representative
Fraction - tells the scale of a map as a ratio between distance on
a map to distance in the real world
Rapids - a part of a river channel where the water moves rapidly
over obstacles, such as large boulders; this is a landform on the
Colorado River in the Grand Canyon
Intermittent lake - contains water only during certain times of the
year, such as the rainy season; it is a landform in Death Valley |
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