HR: 1340h
AN: ED53A-0317    [Abstracts]
TI: Variable Rivers: an Activity for Interpreting Earth-surface Processes
AU: * Baumtrog, J R
EM: jillbaumtrog@yahoo.com
AF: Wayzata Central Middle School, 305 Vicksburg Lane, Plymouth, MN 55447 United States
AU: Campbell, K
EM: kmc@umn.edu
AF: National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics, St. Anthony Falls Laboratory 2 Third Ave. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414 United States
AB: The National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics (NCED) is a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center based at the University of Minnesota. NCED is a multidisciplinary research institution whose research is primarily focused on the physical and ecological processes shaping rivers and river networks. Practicing K-12 teachers and research staff at NCED develop materials that promote greater understanding of "source to sink" processes of erosion, transport, and deposition for the K-12 classroom. This session will present an activity designed to provide teachers with a cooperative group-work activity for students as they explore variables affecting the size and shape of rivers. In Variable Rivers, students work in small groups to test an isolated variable affecting the size and shape of rivers. Students form an hypothesis and test the effects of: amount of water, water velocity, or steepness of the river bed. They look at these variables as they relate to river width, river depth, and delta size. Students then compare their results with other groups who tested the same variable, before presenting their information to the class.
DE: 0744 Rivers (0483, 1856)
DE: 0800 EDUCATION
DE: 0805 Elementary and secondary education
DE: 0825 Teaching methods
DE: 1847 Modeling
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005