Plumeflow Project
Using Groundwater Flow Models in 8th grade Earth Science
Kiran Purohit, Manhattan Academy of Technology
Kiran Purohit, Manhattan Academy of Technology
Introduction -
Lesson Plan
In 8th grade science at Manhattan Academy of Technology, we have worked to plan a curriculum in which different themes recur throughout the year, as students learn more about different earth processes, science concepts, and types of mathematical patterns. As a result, general concepts such as cyclical processes in the earth, composition of matter, and relationships of lithosphere/hydrosphere/biosphere come up in the context of many different projects.
One way to impress upon students the effectiveness and relevance of good models is to look at them in terms of the stories they can explain or clarify for us. In this unit, students work on writing short scenarios or narratives that could be modeled on the sand tanks. As a class, they read selections from Rachel Carsonšs Silent Spring, then go on to do group research into other kinds of groundwater phenomena that could be modeled using the sand tanks. In other words, by going back and forth between the sand tanks as models and the stories of real life, students can come to understand the usefulness of the models for explaining phenomena in nature.
Other than model-construction, a number of themes from other projects in earth science surface in this unit. In this outline, I try to indicate where I am either drawing on prior knowledge students should have, or gaps that I would plan to fill in future units. This way, a teacher can plan accordingly depending on where the students are when she does this sand tank unit!
