Target Audience/Timeline: This Super Fab Landforms Webquest is designed to be completed by 3rd grade - 5th grade students at the end of their Landforms Unit, typically a one to two week study. However, this webquest will need 2-3 45 minute periods to complete.
3.7C Objective: The student knows that the Earth consists of natural resources and its surface is constantly changing. The student is expected to identify and compare different landforms, including mountains, hills, valleys, and plains.
Suggested Modifications: Depending on the background knowledge and ability of your students, the complexity of the task can be modified. In additon, reducing the number of sites can also be used as a modification. Advanced learners should incorporate a presentation piece, for example: a video of them promoting the 5 different destinations.
Teacher Backgrouind Information: The surface of the Earth’s land changes as we travel from one place to another. These different forms of land, or landforms, are different because of forces working underneath and above the ground. As a result, mountains, hills, valleys, plateaus, and plains can be created and changed over time. Because many of these changes require many years to occur, they are sometimes not evident to the human eye. A mountain that we observe as a child may appear exactly the same fifty years later, yet even a massive mountain changes over eons of time. The surface of the Earth, called the crust, is a layer of rock several miles thick. Beneath this crust the rock begins to soften and become molten due to the tremendous internal heat of the Earth. The Earth’s crust, however, is like a puzzle in that it is broken into pieces, called plates. These plates, due to the rotation of the Earth, are slowly but constantly shifting and grinding against each other. When these plates crash into each other, slide by each other, or move away from each other, the ground will sometimes move violently for a short period of time. The earth will “quake.” Hence, the term earthquake. Though an earthquake may occur rapidly, it is the result of the very gradual movement of the Earth’s plates. The plates move against each other building up increasing pressure until the rock cracks and movement takes place to ease the pressure. An earthquake can dramatically change the surface and appearance of the Earth in a very short time as the ground rises or falls in response to the movement of the rocks beneath the surface.
Because these cracks, called faults, exist between the broken plates of the Earth’s surface and can extend miles down into the crust, they can sometimes be so deep as to allow molten rock from the depths of the Earth to force its way to the surface.. This molten rock, called magma, heated to liquid form and under very high pressure, can be pushed to the surface to create a volcano. As the magma flows from the volcano it begins to cool and eventually will become new rock covering the existing rock and building up the land. Volcanic eruptions can dramatically change the surface of the land surrounding it.
Weathering may be much less dramatic than an earthquake or volcano, but can be just as effective in changing the surface of the Earth. Weathering is the breaking down of rocks into smaller particles from the effects of wind, water, or ice. As wind blows against the face of a cliff, for example, it carries with it small particles of soil and sediment which act as a grinding agent against the cliff to slowly wear away the rock. Water is an agent for wear also as it flows over rock while carrying small particles of sediment and sand. Rivers can form deep canyons as they slowly wear away the rock of the river bed. When water freezes, it expands to become larger. When this occurs as water seeps into rocks, the expansion of the water as it freezes can crack the rocks into smaller particles.
Once the small particles, or sediment, are broken away, they may be moved to a different location by the force of wind, water, or ice through a process called erosion. Sand dunes are formed as wind moves mountains of sand from one place to another. Excessive rain can cause hillsides to soften and eventually a landslide occurs. Hurricanes, with their powerful crashing waves, may wash away entire beaches of sand. Even glaciers as they slowly slide down mountains are able to break away rock and move large boulders down to the valley below.
Eventually, as the winds stop, or the water calms, or the ice melts, the movement of sediment will stop in a process called deposition. Deposition is the building up (depositing) of new land in a location due to weathering and erosion. Many times new land is created where rivers or streams flow into a lake or ocean. The flowing stream or river carries the sediment to the lake or ocean, but the flowing currents stop upon entering the larger body of water, and the sediment sinks to the bottom and builds new land. Land formed in this process is called a delta.
The face of the Earth is constantly changing due to forces both above and below the surface. The changes may be gradual over a long period of time or occur very quickly.
Because these cracks, called faults, exist between the broken plates of the Earth’s surface and can extend miles down into the crust, they can sometimes be so deep as to allow molten rock from the depths of the Earth to force its way to the surface.. This molten rock, called magma, heated to liquid form and under very high pressure, can be pushed to the surface to create a volcano. As the magma flows from the volcano it begins to cool and eventually will become new rock covering the existing rock and building up the land. Volcanic eruptions can dramatically change the surface of the land surrounding it.
Weathering may be much less dramatic than an earthquake or volcano, but can be just as effective in changing the surface of the Earth. Weathering is the breaking down of rocks into smaller particles from the effects of wind, water, or ice. As wind blows against the face of a cliff, for example, it carries with it small particles of soil and sediment which act as a grinding agent against the cliff to slowly wear away the rock. Water is an agent for wear also as it flows over rock while carrying small particles of sediment and sand. Rivers can form deep canyons as they slowly wear away the rock of the river bed. When water freezes, it expands to become larger. When this occurs as water seeps into rocks, the expansion of the water as it freezes can crack the rocks into smaller particles.
Once the small particles, or sediment, are broken away, they may be moved to a different location by the force of wind, water, or ice through a process called erosion. Sand dunes are formed as wind moves mountains of sand from one place to another. Excessive rain can cause hillsides to soften and eventually a landslide occurs. Hurricanes, with their powerful crashing waves, may wash away entire beaches of sand. Even glaciers as they slowly slide down mountains are able to break away rock and move large boulders down to the valley below.
Eventually, as the winds stop, or the water calms, or the ice melts, the movement of sediment will stop in a process called deposition. Deposition is the building up (depositing) of new land in a location due to weathering and erosion. Many times new land is created where rivers or streams flow into a lake or ocean. The flowing stream or river carries the sediment to the lake or ocean, but the flowing currents stop upon entering the larger body of water, and the sediment sinks to the bottom and builds new land. Land formed in this process is called a delta.
The face of the Earth is constantly changing due to forces both above and below the surface. The changes may be gradual over a long period of time or occur very quickly.