How Can a Dam Change the Land Around It?

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Phenomenon: Wanapum Dam

Phenomenon: Students will use the Wanapum Dam and its challenges to generate exploration of dams’ impact on the environment and communities. This will lead to a series of lessons exploring various aspects of the topic.

Materials List

Handouts

Classroom Supplies

  • Poster boards
  • Sticky notes
  • Shallow tub filled with sand or soil
  • Wooden block, cinderblock, or book to use to lift one end of the plastic tub
  • Water to pour into tub
  • Styrofoam cup
  • Tray to catch water
  • Scissors
  • Water bottle and water

Important Links

Next Generation Science Standards

Next Generation Science Standards

  • 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.
  • 2-ESS2-2. Develop a model to represent the shapes and kinds of land and bodies of water in an area.

Time: 7 periods of 60 minutes

This unit appears as a part of the following:
Water Power Implementation Toolkit

This is a teacher recommended unit from Open Education Resource Commons.

The Second Grade Elementary Framework for Science and Integrated Subjects, “How Can Dams Change the Land Around Them”, uses a local phenomenon of the impact of the Wanapum Dam on the Columbia River and a crack in that dam to understand erosion and changes in the landscape.

 

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