SOIL EROSION. Science Investigation: Why the rain water falling from the. Part A. slope is dirty? By Seema Vora and Sophie Adam (grade 4)

Transcription

1 Part A SOIL EROSION Science Investigation: Why the rain water falling from the slope is dirty? By Seema Vora and Sophie Adam (grade 4)

2 Abstract: Sophie Adam, 9 years old and Pre-service teacher Seema Vora investigated why the rain water falling from the slope is dirty? We did fair test by using a foil tray filled up 3 cm deep with the soil. We pour the water evenly on the soil by putting tray on a plastic box. We were physically able to see that how water flows from the top of the tray carries top soil at the bottom of the tray. Background information: My friend and I were gardening in her back yard. Their back yard is on the steep slope. Suddenly it started raining. My friend's daughter ran down to the slope due to excitement. She played there for a while as the water coming down from the slope. When she came up, she asked her mother that why is the rain water falling from the slope gets dirty? Look my pants and toes are dirty. Her question suddenly struck me of her observation. Hence, this is the reason why I decided to do investigation on the topic 'soil erosion'. We looked on the internet for the ideas about this and found investigation method at Sophie was not very sure that investigation will work, so her mum showed her the video on YouTube which shows how water falling from a slope get dirty by carrying top soil. By watching the video, Sophie was convinced to do investigation. Topic: Soil erosion. Hypothesis: If the water falls from different angles/elevations/slopes on a hill, will the amount of soil erosion be same or different? Prediction: The soil with the highest slope will have high soil erosion and the soil with the lowest slop will have less soil erosion.

3 Materials: List of materials * 2 trays * water bottle * soil * 2 plastic boxes of same size * ruler * i-pad

4 Method: * Draw a level in the foil tray using permanent marker to fill it with soil e.g., 3 cm deep. * Fill the tray to the level and put a single plastic box underneath the tray to give elevation. * Put another tray or bucket underneath the incline tray. * Pour water across the top of the tray evenly until the bottle is empty, catch excess water in another tray. *Measure the new depth of soil both at the top and at the bottom of the tray. Photos:

5 Watching soil erosion when tray is inclined by putting one putting one plastic box underneath. Watching soil erosion when tray is inclined by putting two plastic boxes underneath.

6 Results: Sophie recorded the depth of soil at the top end and bottom end of the tray by changing the angle of slope of tray. Discussion: Table (created from Sophie's written observation). The investigation showed us how the soil erosion is more when water falling from the high slope and less when falling from the lower slope. Sophie was able to see this by measuring the top end and bottom end of the tray with the ruler. We could have also included other variables in the investigation such as different type of soil on the slope to see its effectiveness on the soil erosion. Conclusion: Yes! Our result supports the hypothesis and predication. Our result showed that soil erosion from high slope is more and from the lower slope is less. We can conclude that the soil on the hills tend to erode more quickly than the soil on the flat land.

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