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Between a rock and a soft place: surfgrass colonizes sediments without attachment to rock
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In the Earth sciences, weathering encompasses all the physical, chemical, and biological processes that break down rocks in place. Rock weathering takes decades to millions of years and impacts climate and soil formation. In our two-part lesson, students develop an understanding of weathering and how it can influence climate and human society through hands-on experiments. Lesson 1 focuses on how rock weathering impacts climate; students investigate how changing the temperature and acidity of weathering agents affects the rate of rock weathering. Lesson 2 focuses on how weathering impacts human society; students perform experiments simulating weathering of mudstone and granite via shaking rocks in containers; students observe that these rocks weather at different rates and produce different-sized particles because of physical weathering. Students relate their experimental observations to the process of soil formation and then apply this knowledge to societally relevant topics. These lessons bring rock weathering into the classroom with crosscutting concepts and connect the Earth, climate, and human society together in an interactive way.more » « less
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2791
