FOSS at Home FOSS® at Home Landforms Name Date The FOSS (Full Option Science System™) program offers a number of ways to get parents involved in their child’s science education. Included here are short descriptions of several ways to bridge from classroom to home. ® Letter to Parents. The letter to parents can be sent home at the start of a new science module. The letter describes what children will be learning and ways that parents can enrich the science-learning experience. FOSS Science Stories. FOSS Science Stories is a series of original books developed to accompany and enrich the FOSS modules. The books include a variety of articles written in a number of styles, including narrative tales, expository articles, technical readings, and historical accounts. Here are some suggestions for using FOSS Science Stories at home. LETTER TO PARENTS Cut here and paste onto school letterhead before making copies. Dear Parents, Human beings make their homes at the surface of the planet we know as Earth. The shapes that decorate Earth’s surface include a variety of landforms, including mountains and valleys, canyons and ridges, volcanoes, basins, hills, sand dunes, and moraines. Each landform is the result of one or more processes that create and change Earth’s surface. In the FOSS Landforms Module students begin to look at ways to represent the features of Earth’s surface at smaller scales. First, they work in three dimensions by creating desktop models of their schoolyard. They learn to transfer the features in their models to a two-dimensional map. Along the way, they learn that symbols can represent landforms, structures, and other features of an area. They continue their study of the landforms by investigating the effects of water running over Earth’s surface. The Grand Canyon is the focus of their investigations as they set up a model plateau in a stream table. As they observe the effects of water running over solid earth materials, they learn new landforms and vocabulary, including canyons, deltas, erosion, and deposition. They design and set up investigations to study how changes made by people affect the processes of erosion, deposition, and stream flow. You can extend your child’s experiences in the classroom in a number of ways. Take trips to nearby parks that feature landforms common to your region. Watch the erosion and deposition that take place during and after a rainstorm. Visit your local library and check out books that include information about the local landscape. Have your child help you plan the route and destination for your next family vacation, keeping in mind the interesting and unusual landforms you could encounter along the road. Watch for Home/School Connection sheets that I will be sending home from time to time. On them you will find suggestions for activities you can do at home with the whole family to extend and enrich the investigations we will be undertaking in our classroom. If you have any questions or comments, call or come in and visit our class. We’re looking forward to weeks of exciting investigations into the features of Earth’s surface. Comments FOSS Landforms Module © The Regents of the University of California Can be duplicated for classroom or workshop use. Investigation 1: Schoolyard Models No. 1—Teacher Sheet No. 1—Teacher Sheet • Expository and Historical/Biographical Readings. The expository and historical/biographical readings provide excellent opportunities for students and parents to discuss the science content students are learning in the module. Specific articles include Maps and How They Are Made, Shapes of the Earth, and The Story of Mount Shasta. • “Questions to Explore.” Students can read the article in class and then answer the “Questions to Explore” at home in their science notebooks. You might consider this strategy after students read Rivers and Controlling the Flow or Real People in the Grand Canyon. • After the Story. See the Science Stories folio in the Teacher Guide for suggestions on how to extend the stories at home. For example, after students read National Parks, you might have students research any parks in your area in the library or on the Internet. If possible, you might also take a field trip to one or more of the parks. Landforms 1 Landforms Name Date HOME/SCHOOL CONNECTION INVESTIGATION 3: GO WITH THE FLOW Watch television newscasts, read newspapers or magazines, and/or browse the Internet for information about landforms and the natural or human-caused processes that create or change landforms. Some ideas might include floods, hurricanes and storm surges, earthquakes, landslides, and dams. Record in the space below the following information about the news story: • The details of the event. • The kinds of landforms that were affected by the event. • How the event changed or created the landform(s). • Where the event occurred. Look up the location on a map so you can point it out to someone else. • If possible, include a copy of the newspaper or magazine article. FOSS Landforms Module © The Regents of the University of California Can be duplicated for classroom or workshop use. Home/School Connection No. 36—Student Sheet No. 36—Student Sheet Name Date MATH EXTENSION—PROBLEM OF THE WEEK INVESTIGATION 1: SCHOOLYARD MODELS Jessie’s group decided they wanted to make a map of their schoolyard on a larger sheet of paper. The largest sheet of paper they could use was a square measuring 100 cm on a side. They used a trundle wheel to measure the lengths of the school boundaries. The following sketch shows their measurements. Game Field 500 m 500 m Schoolyard measurements Portables 250 m Playground Student Sheets. Throughout the module, students complete various recording and response sheets. Students should bring the sheets and/ or their science notebooks home for families to review and discuss. For example, student sheet number 10, Stream-Table Map, is a good opportunity for students to explain and review with parents how the slope of the land affects erosion and deposition. Home/School Connections. Home/School Connections are activities developed specifically for the whole family to enjoy at home. For example, in Investigation 3 (student sheet number 36), students look at television newscasts, the Internet, and newspapers and magazines for news about landforms and the processes that create and change them. They prepare a report that includes the details of the event, where it happened, what types of landforms were described, and how the landforms were created or changed by natural or human-caused processes. Interdisciplinary Extensions. Each investigation has suggestions for art, language, math, social studies, and science extensions. These are good family activities. For example, after Investigation 1 students can create a more permanent model of their schoolyard or local area. They can use clay or papier-mâché and paint the model, including a key. They might also do the Math Problem of the Week at home. FOSSweb (www.fossweb.com). FOSSweb is an interactive website where families can find instructional activities and interactive simulations specifically designed for each FOSS module. School building 250 m Think about the size of paper they have to draw their map. In order for Jessie to fit the whole schoolyard on this sheet of paper, how many meters should each centimeter equal on the map? Show your work. FOSS Landforms Module © The Regents of the University of California Can be duplicated for classroom or workshop use. Problem of the Week No. 29—Student Sheet No. 29—Student Sheet NOTE: All student sheets, including the Letter to Parents, Home/School Connection, and Math Problem of the Week, are available in FOSS Teacher Guides and online at www.fossweb.com. They are also available in Spanish. See For Parents and Teachers: Home/ School Connection on page 4 of this folio. 2 NOTE: Pages 3 and 4 of this folio can be photocopied and sent home for parents to read. Those pages provide information on the resources for students and their families on FOSSweb. full option science system FOSS at Home FOSSWEB (WWW.FOSSWEB.COM) The FOSS program maintains a resource-rich website for students and their families and friends. To explore the resources available for the Landforms Module, first enter www.fossweb.com in your browser. The FOSS website requires plug-ins for your browser. We recommend that you click the “Test Your Browser” link at the bottom of the home page before you begin to ensure your computer has the minimum requirements. Click the grades 3–6 icon to get a menu that links to each of the 3–6 modules. There you can choose Landforms and travel to a wealth of information and activities specific to this module. ACTIVITIES In the Landforms Module, you’ll find two activities: Aerial Photography and Jigsaw Puzzle. You can introduce these activities after students have completed Investigation 5, Bird’s-Eye View. In Aerial Photography, children view an animation about how aerial photographs are produced. You might ask, • What landforms and other features could we observe in the aerial photographs? Explain that scientists who use aerial photographs often use stereo pairs—two aerial photos of almost the same area that can be overlapped. Each photo contains a portion of the same land area. Scientists use stereo glasses to view the overlapped area in three dimensions. Variations on stereo photography are used today, and computer technology has provided some new techniques to create the 3-D effect. Review the information on the introductory screen. Then click on the airplane to move to the animation. In Jigsaw Puzzle, children assemble a puzzle of aerial photos for the landforms they have studied in this module: Mt. Shasta, Grand Canyon, and Death Valley. Review the information on the introductory screen. Click anywhere on the screen to move to the activity. Show children how to choose a level and landform. The higher levels require them to overlap the images. Show how to click and drag the images to the selected location and how to use the ? button. Landforms 3 Landforms MOVIES The Movies section includes sequences of rafting rapids along the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, a volcanic eruption in Hawaii, and NASA videos about the global positioning system (GPS). PICTURES In the Pictures section, you can view images of many landforms and water features, for example, the Mississippi River delta and the Great Lakes. WEBSITES The Websites section includes links to sites that can extend and enrich children’s experiences with the Landforms Module. VOCABULARY In the Vocabulary section, you will find the glossary words and definitions used in the Landforms Module. They are provided in English and Spanish. BOOKS/SOFTWARE This section includes an annotated list of books, videos, and software recommended for the Landforms Module. You should be able to find many of these titles at your local library. FOR PARENTS AND TEACHERS: HOME/SCHOOL CONNECTION The For Parents and Teachers section includes the Home/School Connection that describes ways for families to do science together. For example, in Investigation 4, students find a highway map for the city, county, or region where they live. They search the map for labeled landforms and for symbols identifying types of landforms. They review the Landform Inventory sheets and identify and label on the maps the landforms they have on their inventories. They then plan a trip with their family to visit a landform they haven’t seen before. Look in this section for other resources included in a downloadable PDF file, including a general letter introducing the module, student projects, and math problems that relate to the science investigations. 4 Copyright The Regents of the University of California full option science system 1014232
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