Adapting a Garden to Heavy Rain
https://climate.earthathome.org/adapting-garden-to-heavy-rain/
https://climate.earthathome.org/adapting-garden-to-heavy-rain/
Ingrid Zabel, Paleontological Research Institution
This learning activity takes 45 minutes.
Learn more about Teaching Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness»
See how this Activity supports the Next Generation Science Standards»
Grade Level
Online Readiness
Topics
Climate Literacy
This Activity builds on the following concepts of Climate Literacy.
Click a topic below for supporting information, teaching ideas, and sample activities.
Energy Literacy
This Activity builds on the following concepts of Energy Literacy.
Click a topic below for supporting information, teaching ideas, and sample activities.
Notes From Our Reviewers
The CLEAN collection is hand-picked and rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and classroom effectiveness.
Read what our review team had to say about this resource below or learn more about
how CLEAN reviews teaching materials
Teaching Tips | Science | Pedagogy |
Technical Details
Teaching Tips
- If a garden/open landscape isn't available or the activity needs to be done inside, the lesson could be done at a stream table, sandbox, or in smaller containers of soil.
- The lesson suggests that students could choose individual or group work. Some students may realize partway through that their plan works better if they collaborate.
- Plan for students to get messy and muddy during this lesson!
- This activity would be most effective if students already had some background about what climate change is and some of the impacts and solutions.
About the Content
- Clear background information on how climate change will impact rainfall is included to set the stage for this activity.
- An extension activity describe the differences between weather and climate.
- Comments from expert scientist:
Scientific Strengths: Weather and climate are discussed in an age appropriate way, the clothing example was a good example to illustrate the difference. Hands on activities are a great way to make things interactive and encourage creativity.
Suggestions: Not necessarily scientific, but K-5 is a pretty wide range of development, and there aren't any suggestions in the resource to adapt the activity to the different abilities. Teachers could come up with that on their own, but it would be nice to have examples that may have been done at the Nature Center, or refine the age range (maybe K-2 or 3).
About the Pedagogy
- This activity is engaging, hands-on, and student-driven.
- Discussion questions are included, but educators may want to develop an additional wrap-up activity to help students reflect on and synthesize their experience more.
- It could be helpful to share more detailed background information before the lesson. For example, more information about how heavy rainfall can cause challenges to farms and gardens.
Technical Details/Ease of Use
- The extension activity isn't clearly marked and is not found in the Extension section, but there is a small link to access the activity below the graphic.
