Students can construct understandings about the Earth's land forms and how those landforms change overtime because of interactions among soil, rocks, water, and wind. These investigations should lead students to conduct further investigations. Science and Technology - Students can become interested in technology as they design projects, use tools well, measure things carefully, make reasonable predictions , calculate accurately, and communicate clearly. Students explore weather systems by observing , measuring , and recording local conditions. They use tools such as thermometers, rain gauges, and barometers to collect data to establish trends.
Students become comfortable designing and analyzing their products.
The more experience students have with design, the less direct guidance they need. They enjoy opportunities to clarify a problem, generate criteria for an acceptable solution, suggest possible solutions, try one out, and then make adjustments or start over with another proposed solution. It is important for students to find out that there is more than one way to design a product or solve a problem. To accomplish this, have several groups of students design and solve the same problem and then discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each solution. Students see that solving some problems may lead to other problems, and demonstrate the ability to balance simple constraints in problem solving.