ERODING MISCONCEPTIONS ON EROSION

Students hear the term “mass wasting” and immediately assume land or mudslides. As we know, those represent the more obvious examples and sometimes students miss the more subtle aspects of erosion issues. K-12 textbooks commonly skim the issues involved with mass wasting, leaving teachers looking for ways to connect the topic to reality. This jigsaw activity is one of several inquiry activities I use to help students learn from teaching and evaluating each other rather than reading and lecturing. It can easily be adapted for middle through high school or for an introductory college survey course.

To prepare this lesson I review articles from different sources at a variety of reading levels looking for those which illustrate consequences of erosion due to various factors such as hurricanes, flooding, and removal of riparian areas and other aspects of urbanization. Short articles are grouped by topic; longer articles (more than 4 pages) stand alone.

Student teams are each assigned a folder with an article or articles over a specific topic which they are to read, evaluate, and to do further research for information that would clarify or elaborate on what they have read. They then prepare and present a lesson for the class concerning their research. A rubric asks them to provide not only a summary of their article but to explain where in the world the events are taking place, what problems are being presented in the article, what the students themselves see as the important issues that contribute to the problem, and ideas they have concerning solutions or corrections. Students listening to the presentations are responsible for evaluating the presentation for content and delivery, taking notes, and are given additional credit for asking questions of the presenters.

Following student presentations, students are asked to create a poster, brochure, or media presentation over one of the topics covered in the presentation for sharing with the school or community.