Modeling Earth Science: Soil Layers

The Earth Science Model lesson provided me with an opportunity to work in a different educational setting than I am used to, therefore, broadening my perspective of how different students learn. I typically implement my lessons at a public middle school, so teaching to a small group of elementary home school students was an interesting change. The students I worked with were in kindergarten, first, and third grade. 

Constructing the soil layer model.

After brainstorming things they knew about soil, and writing information about the layers of soil in a flipbook, students created an edible soil layer model.  This was sort of a spin-off of the classic dirt-in-a-cup dessert. The difference in this lesson activity was that students purposely chose and layered edible materials to represent how soil layers appear on earth. Students referred to their written notes as a guide for building the model. 

The completed soil layer models.

As the students built their model, I required that they talked through their thought process, and justified their reasoning for the materials they chose at each layer.  They explained their use of materials as follows: an Oreo cookie was used for the bedrock because it was solid, crushed graham crackers and mini m&m candies were used for the subsoil because of the pebble and sand content at that level, and chocolate pudding was used for the topsoil because it was soft and dark. After building the model, students told me the name of each layer (topsoil, subsoil, and bedrock) and the size of rock that would be found at each layer.  The kindergarten student was able to complete this informal assessment with prompts from the flipbook, and the older students were able to recite the information from memory. Students were excited to be able to eat the finished project after all portions of the assignment were completed.

Layers of soil flipbook.

 The model was a wonderful way to engage students in the learning process, and allowed them to make a direct connection from written notes to a physical representation.  My lack of differentiation for the multiple ages within the group created the biggest challenge for me.  This was evident as the students wrote notes in their flipbooks.  The flipbook contained a cloze-style sentence, which worked well for the kindergartener, although it did not provide enough stimulation for the older students. This is something I could easily change if I were to re-teach this lesson. Overall the lesson went well, and I was pleased by the enthusiasm and interest my students demonstrated.