Section 1
Water and Wind Break Down Rocks
Weathering occurs when rocks break into smaller pieces due to water, wind, temperature changes, and living things. This process happens slowly over time, creating sand and soil from larger rocks.
Grade 3 students learn how weathering and erosion slowly change Earth's surface in this lesson from Science: A Closer Look, Chapter 4. Students explore how running water, wind, freezing and thawing, and living things break rocks into smaller pieces through weathering, and how erosion, glaciers, and deposition move and deposit those materials. A hands-on inquiry activity using rocks shaken in water helps students observe these processes firsthand.
Section 1
Water and Wind Break Down Rocks
Weathering occurs when rocks break into smaller pieces due to water, wind, temperature changes, and living things. This process happens slowly over time, creating sand and soil from larger rocks.
Section 2
Moving Forces Transport Weathered Materials
Erosion moves weathered rock particles to new locations through water, wind, gravity, and glaciers. Once the carrying force slows down, deposition occurs, dropping materials in new places.
Section 3
Humans Reshape Land Features
People change the landscape by cutting trees, draining wetlands, digging for resources, and building structures. These actions can cause soil to wash away or create entirely new landforms.
Section 4
Glaciers Carve and Transform Landscapes
Massive ice sheets called glaciers pick up and carry rocks of all sizes as they move slowly across land. They can transport house-sized boulders and reshape entire landscapes over time.
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Section 1
Water and Wind Break Down Rocks
Weathering occurs when rocks break into smaller pieces due to water, wind, temperature changes, and living things. This process happens slowly over time, creating sand and soil from larger rocks.
Section 2
Moving Forces Transport Weathered Materials
Erosion moves weathered rock particles to new locations through water, wind, gravity, and glaciers. Once the carrying force slows down, deposition occurs, dropping materials in new places.
Section 3
Humans Reshape Land Features
People change the landscape by cutting trees, draining wetlands, digging for resources, and building structures. These actions can cause soil to wash away or create entirely new landforms.
Section 4
Glaciers Carve and Transform Landscapes
Massive ice sheets called glaciers pick up and carry rocks of all sizes as they move slowly across land. They can transport house-sized boulders and reshape entire landscapes over time.
Book overview
Jump across lessons in the current chapter without opening the full course modal.
Continue this chapter