planet earth and beyond
 : Landshape
44k
Approach: One to One Level: Year 4 & year 8 
Resources: Photographs: Abbotsford landslip showing wrecked houses, coastline showing erosion; cartoons: Bogor, Footrot Flats; OHP mylar sheet; red pencil; pencil.

Questions / instructions:
This activity is about changes that happen to the land. Some changes happen over a very very long time, while others can happen more quickly. In this activity we'll look at some pictures and cartoons.

  % responses
y4

Show picture of landslide at Abbotsford.
1. This picture shows a terrible disaster.
    What do you think might have caused this to happen?

Landslide
Earthquake
Wind/rain/flooding

9
83
25

Note: The question directed attention to causes rather than what happened.
The responses reflect this.

 

Show Burton Silver's Bogor cartoon.
2. Bogor has been very busy cutting down all of the trees on the forest hills.
    All we can see now are the shapes of the hills and the tree stumps.
    What are the changes that could happen, now that all of the trees have gone?
    Prompt: What do you think would happen if it rained hard for days and days?

Good or partially appropriate ideas/explanations

34

Show Murray Ball's Footrot Flats cartoon.
3. Wal is a farmer. A big crack has opened up on the hillside of his farm.
    Why do you think this big crack happened?

landslide
earthquake
wind/rain

4
57
6

4. What do you think Wal could do to stop any more cracks happening on his farm in the future?

Good or partially appropriate ideas/explanations

41

Show coastline erosion photograph.
This picture shows part of a coastline. You will notice that the coastline has a shape.
We can easily trace that shape onto a piece of paper.

Teacher traces the coastline onto tracing paper with (grey) pencil.
Over thousands of years, the coastline would have changed its shape. It would have been a different shape a long long time ago. They didn't take photos thousands of years ago, so we don't know exactly what the shape would have been. In the future the shape of this coastline will keep on changing. In thousands of years time, the shape of the coastline will be different from now. We don't know exactly what it will be like then, but it is interesting to think about what it MIGHT be like.

I would like you to have a go at drawing what you think it might be like thousands of years from now.

55

Student draws shape with red pencil.
5. Can you explain to me why you decided to draw the coastline like that?
     Prompt: What would have caused the land to change its shape?

Good or partially appropriate ideas/explanations



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