Erosion!

Today in Science we learned what erosion means and how important roots are in preventing it.  We did an experiment outside with plants and soil.  Mrs. Metz brought in a plant that had roots and a bucket of just soil.  She took a pitcher of water and poured it over the plant with roots.  We noticed that there was no "erosion" of the soil.  The roots helped prevent the soil from eroding away.  The bucket of soil that had no roots had lots of erosion. 

Water being poured on the plant with roots

Very little soil was left on the white paper.  The roots held the soil together.  There was very little erosion.

When we poured water in the bucket with no roots lots of the soil came out of the bottom (lots of erosion!)

We went back into the classroom and had a discussion about what we learned.  We reviewed what erosion means and how important trees, plants and roots are in preventing this. This conversation led to us talking about trees and forests and why big forest companies don't log near river banks.  Most students said we shouldn't cut down trees but then we asked how would we build new houses? have pencils to write with? have paper to write on?  Then we talked about when trees are cut that it is important to replant which was called reforestation!  This led to us talking about renewable resources!  Oh I love how grade twos think!!!!