Weathering Erosion and Deposition Experiment Geology The Good and the Beautiful

Hello, my name is Kaushay! Today we are going to complete the, "Weathering, Erosion, and Deposition" experiment from Lesson 13 of the Geology unit from The Good and the Beautiful. For this experiment, we will need sheet pan, damp sand, straw, ice cubes, watering can, and pitcher of water. First, I'll prop up one side of our baking sheet so that it forms shallow slope and then I'll place towel here at the bottom to catch any runoff. You could also do this experiment outside for easier cleanup. Now we'll start building up our land on the raised side of the pan using our damp sand. You can make it any shape you want with hills or valleys. Make sure to keep it on the top half of the pan. Okay, that looks good! Next place two to three ice cubes in the top corners of the pan. Make sure the ice is set in section of flat sand. Last of all, create narrow riverbed down the center of the land by pulling your finger through the sand from top to bottom. Okay, we're ready for the next part now. Watch closely as pour some water here at the top of the pan. See how it looks like river flowing through riverbed? Can you see how the water is breaking down our sand river banks? This is an example of weathering. Remember that weathering breaks down rocks. Now look at the water running towards the bottom of our pan. Do you see how it's carrying little pieces of sand with it as it flows? This is an example of erosion. The process of erosion carries the broken pieces of rock and sand away. What do you see at the bottom of our tray now? All this sand was carried down our sheet pan and was deposited here at the bottom. This process is called deposition. Remember that weathering breaks the sediment, erosion takes the sediment, and deposition drops the sediment in new place. Are rivers the only cause of weathering? Can you think of any other ways that rocks are weathered? I'm going to use the straw to weather our sand another way, using the power of wind. Did you see that? When blew the air our sand formations broke down from weathering. The air carried away the sand fragments through erosion and the sand settled somewhere else through deposition. Now let's simulate rainfall using this watering can and see how that affects our land. What's happening where the rain is falling? Can you see the same processes of weathering, erosion, and deposition? Finally let's take look at our ice cubes. Do you notice any weathering or erosion where the ice cubes have been? If you don't see much change, that's okay. These ice cubes are showing us glacial movement which is very slow process of weathering. Over time the ice cubes will slide down wearing down the land underneath them, carrying away some of the sand with them, and depositing that sand somewhere else. This is one more example of weathering, erosion, and deposition. For more tips, tricks, and experiments check out The Good and the Beautiful Science YouTube Channel! Be sure to check out these open and go homeschool science units, and many more, on goodandbeautiful.com. Also, download our free Marine Biology unit today!