Increased population growth has forced families to live in flood plains, which has resulted in greater flooding catastrophes in recent years.
Many areas of the United States experience flooding at some point. To children, floods can be scary, but often children are curious about how they happen. Teaching students how floods occur can alleviate some of their fears, and teach them an important science lesson on how water flows from rivers and oceans.
The Stream Table
PBS recommends an easy exercise for teachers to illustrate how stream tables can work. Students use a ruler, small rocks, wooden barriers and sand to try to stop water as it threatens homes in its path. The "houses" can be from a game or handmade. This exercise can be accompanied by a video about the Grand Teton Dam collapse in 1976 that killed 11 people and about 13,000 cattle. Students can compare their methods of holding back water to what was done by Idaho officials.
Easing Flood Concerns
People in flood prone areas have many concerns about protecting their homes. This experiment, also from PBS, will help children learn about how water gets into the home. Using the same stream table used in the first experiment and some sand to guide the flow of the water, students learn how homes are affected when a river overflows. The experiment can be done using different velocities to get different results. Different sizes of homes can also be used to show how they are affected.
The Impact of Rain
The Bureau of Economics at the University of Texas recommends that children set up a stream table in a box lined with plastic. Using sand and diatomaceous earth, students can create a slope in the box. Rain can be simulated from a bucket of water. After the "rain" comes down on the box, students should walk away from the box for five to 10 minutes. When the students return they will be able to see how the rain affected the "environment" and gradient.
Monitoring Rivers
Fifth-grade students studied the flooding patterns of two rivers in Michigan for a year. Both of the schools were near rivers that had flooded, affecting their schools. The students documented water levels throughout the year. When the year ended, the data was compared to see if there were any similarities or differences between the flooding patterns throughout the year. The project was lead by the Fermilab Leadership Institute that integrates real-world problems with lessons and experiments in the classrooms. This experiment can be replicated in classrooms in cities where flooding from rivers is a problem.
Tags: flooding patterns, from rivers, stream table, This experiment, throughout year
