Second Grade scientists are studying patterns of river flow and formation, connecting to their unit on geographic landforms in homeroom! This week, scientists started with a “See Think Wonder” routine about how rivers are formed and how they travel, then did their own modeling and discovery, and finally revisited their original thoughts and drawings to update their thinking. Pairs of students built paper mountains, marked the tops of their mountains with dye, then sprayed “rain” onto their landscapes to see how rivers form from rainfall and run down into streams, then larger rivers, eventually ending in the ocean.
Using short videos, and maps of the United States and of California, they developed questions and predictions about the direction rivers flow. They shared observations of the Hillbrook creek and predicted where they think its water ends up. They were overheard sharing observations on Friday, like, “I changed my thinking because of what he said. I think the Strange River went super fast in land that has sand and salt maybe. Then it picks up the sand and brings it to the ocean.”
I changed my thinking because of what he said. I think the Strange River went super fast in land that has sand and salt maybe. Then it picks up the sand and brings it to the ocean.
And, “I think the sand starts high up mixed in the water but then it disappears because it goes under–when it gets in the ocean it goes down.”
They made new diagrams, and labeled photos of their paper models in their science notebooks, noting their new understanding that rivers start in mountains or tall hills and flow to low ground, ending up in the ocean. Excitement and curiosity abounded about the possibility of investigating other creeks they know and applying their new terms and concepts to form and test new predictions! We can’t wait to see where this flows!