Summer SAVY, Session 6 Day 4, “Earth Science Rocks!” (1st-2nd)
Greetings from Machu Picchu Day! Today was the day we started making connections with all we have learned so far—rocks, mountains, erosion, soil. The major project of the morning was a brief review of the week’s activities so far, an introduction to Machu Picchu, and a discussion of the farming practices on the mountain, where terraces were used to plant crops. The question is, how do you keep erosion and water loss at a minimum when you have to farm on the side of a mountain?
The students had to figure this out for themselves today! Their goal in their experiments is to create a “terrace” using only cotton balls, aluminum foil, cardboard, and tape. After these were constructed, we poured one bottle of water each down their “slopes”. Whoever had the least amount of water in the bucket was the winner! After we did this, we discussed why each group’s project worked or didn’t work, and which was the most effective. They had to then draw a new prototype based on what they learned from their first attempts. We’ve attached photos here! You might want to ask them which prototype worked and why, and how they improved their own designs.
As a side note, I’ve never had a group of kids who worked so well together on group projects! They all enjoyed working together and contributed!
We had another sharing session after ORA, with another student who brought in her rock collection (the kids love this, btw!), and the students also had time to explore many books on rocks, minerals, elements, volcanoes, and wrote down questions they wanted answered by Friday. We spent some time answering questions from yesterday. One student asked about the largest rock in the world, which is Mount Augustus in Western Australia, and a close second is the nearby Uluru. We saw a quick video, and the students immediately realized it was a sedimentary rock! Woohoo!
It was another productive day, and, as usual, their curiosity and questions AMAZE me!
