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Sand
and Gravel Program Projects and Ideas to Get Your Kids Involved
 Take
a field trip to the shore of a nearby creek, river, or lake to observe
accumulations of sand
and gravel.
Plan a field trip to a nearby creek, river, or lake with public
access and preferably in a park or other public land rangers, guides or
volunteers available to discuss the areas where sand and gravel accumulate.
Note places where the banks are eroding and places where silt, sand, and
gravel are being deposited and observe where the finest-grained and
coarsest-grained materials occur. Note if any effort is being made to prevent
or minimize bank erosion such as placement of rip-rap (large pieces of rock)
or use of special plants and grasses.
Take
a field trip to a local sand and gravel pit or rock quarry.
Many sand and gravel operations have tours or will accommodate
school field trips. Things to observe include what kind of material is being
excavated and how did it get there, how is it processed (crushed, cleaned, and
sorted by grain sizes), how many different products are produced, what are
they used for, and how are they transported. Make a list of things that each
student has or uses each day that have any of the products produced at the pit
or quarry, such as concrete, mortar, asphalt, snow and ice treatments, mineral
fillers for roofing, plastics, etc. Find out how much sand, gravel, and
crushed rock are produced in your county, city area, or state, and divide by
the current population to find out how much material per person is consumed
each year.
Make
a sediment movement tank for the classroom.
Purchase a large clear plastic container, such as those used to
store long garments or wrapping paper and a bucket containing a mixture of
sand, silt, clay, and gravel obtained from a nearby creek or river. Add
several inches of water to the plastic container and prop one end up a half
inch, add some of the material from the bucket to the uppermost end, and add
more water to the upper end to simulate river water movement. Observe how the
materials move, much like the sediment movement in a creek or river. Try
raising the container another half inch and repeat adding material and water
and observe how the material moves. Continue until the container is so steep
that the material moved instantly to the lower end.
Erosion of Soil
This experiment is as simple as it sounds.
- Take some soil, make a little mountain at least 20 cm high, with steep
walls and a flat top. With a hose, water it down, avoiding direct jets. You will see the borders slide down and the heap of mound of soil
progressively take the typical profile of a true mountain. Observe and
describe what happens during this artificial rain.
- Redo the test. This time insert an impermeable clay layer on top of the
mountain and then some regular soil: the lake of water on the clay layer
should give rise to a sudden landslide of liquid mud.
- Build another mountain with stones, clay, sand and ground in different
positions. Observe the different behavior of the materials towards the
artificial rain.
- Sow grass on a new "mountain" and pour water on it after the grass has
grown.
Web Sites Related to
Careers in Marine Minerals and BOEMRE
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