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Grade 2. In 10 lessons, students define two problems caused by wind and/or water eroding surface land material, then test and compare models of solutions to the problems. Module includes a teacher guide, 16 Smithsonian Science Stories student readers, and enough materials for 32 students to use 1 time.

Grade 2. Module Highlights: In 10 lessons, students define two problems caused by wind and/or water eroding surface land material, then test and compare models of solutions to the problems. To begin their explorations, students use several approaches to research what might have caused mud to block a road. Once they better understand the situation, students define a specific problem to solve. They then test and compare four possible solutions to the problem. In the end-of-module design challenge, students take what they have learned about how wind and water can cause land change over different timeframes and apply it to a new situation. Student pairs define specific land-change problems in a beach setting, explore how water wave action affects sand on a beach, and test a solution model. Students who defined similar problems compare and identify strengths and weaknesses of their solutions.

Student Readers Available HERE

This module includes a teacher guide, 16 Smithsonian Science Stories student readers, and enough materials for 32 students to use 1 time.

Alignment to the Next Generation Science Standards*
Performance Expectations

• K-2 ETS 1-1: Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.
• K-2 ETS 1-2: Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem.
• K-2 ETS 1-3: Analyze data from tests of two objects designed to solve the same problem to compare the strengths and weaknesses of how each performs.
• 2-ESS1-1: Use information from several sources to provide evidence that Earth events can occur quickly or slowly.
• 2-ESS2-1: Compare multiple solutions designed to slow or prevent wind or water from changing the shape of the land.

• A situation that people want to change or create can be approached as a problem to be solved through engineering. Such problems may have many acceptable solutions.
• Before beginning to design a solution, it is important to clearly understand the problem.
• Asking questions, making observations, and gathering information are helpful in thinking about problems.

• Designs can be conveyed through sketches, drawings, or physical models. These representations are useful in communicating ideas for a problem’s solutions to other people.

• Because there is always more than one possible solution to a problem, it is useful to compare and test designs.

• Wind and water can change the shape of the land.

• Some events happen very quickly; others occur very slowly, over a time period much longer than one can observe.

• Analyzing and interpreting data
• Constructing explanations
• Designing solutions
• Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information

• Developing and using models
• Engaging in argument from evidence

• Stability and change
• Structure and function
• Cause and effect
• Systems and system models

• Scale, proportion, and quantity

Phenomena and Problems Storyline
Lesson Summaries
Lesson 1: Late to School
Students research the situation and figure out that wind and water can change the shape of land over a range of observable and unobservable timeframes. They define a specific problem, decide on goals for solutions, and test and compare different solutions to the problem.
Students document their initial ideas about what might have caused mud to block the road. They identify examples of changes that might occur in different timeframes: one minute, twenty-four hours, one year, and seven years.
Lesson 2: Asking and Answering Questions
Students discuss why the situation might matter to them or their community. They ask questions about the situation. They collaboratively plan how to make observations to help them better understand the situation. Understanding the situation will help them ultimately define a related problem to solve.
Lesson 3: Surface Erosion (A Little Off the Top)
Students use models of the situation to make firsthand observations of how water and wind can make loose land surfaces change rapidly and more slowly.
Lesson 4: Construction Site Woes
Students use observations of and data from a construction site to further answer their questions about and better understand the situation.
Lesson 5: Change! Change! Read All About It!
Students read a nonfiction text to gather additional information to help them understand the situation. Students use observations from their models, the construction site data, and the text to explain that wind and water can change the shape of the land, sometimes quickly and sometimes slowly. Students individually record their explanations of how mud blocked the road by Ada's school.
Lesson 6: Choosing A Problem
Students use what they have figured out from the preceding lessons to define a specific problem to solve. They collaboratively decide what their solutions need to do so that they can test and compare solution models.
Lesson 7: Holding Back the Land
Students brainstorm solution ideas. Student groups read about, discuss, and share information about four existing methods for reducing land change by erosion: retaining walls, sandbags, grass, and trees. Students individually suggest one way to use these methods to solve the class-defined problem.
Lesson 8: Test and Compare
Students test models of the solution methods and analyze their observations to determine if their solution met the goals. They identify strengths and weaknesses of different solutions.
Science Challenge
Lesson 9: Beach Erosion Problems, Part 1
Students use a new model to explore if and how water and wind might affect sand on a beach. Student pairs define a problem, including goals for their solutions. They use solution models from earlier lessons and test their solutions to see if they can be used to solve this new problem.
Student teams compare their solutions to another solution designed to solve a similar problem.
Students record their ideas about what might have caused the sand loss and identify one specific problem that might exist in the beach setting. To better understand the situation, students use a beach model to explore how wind, rain, and wave action affects sand along a coastline. Student teams define a problem they will solve and the goals for a solution.
Lesson 10: Beach Erosion Problems, Part 2
Student teams select one or more solution methods used earlier in the module and decide how they should be placed to solve the problem. Teams test their solution to see if it meets their goals. Each team compares their solution to a solution designed by another team to meet similar goals.

*Next Generation Science Standards® is a registered trademark of WestEd. Neither WestEd nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.