Learn about soil erosion with a fun, hands-on edible science activity that kids are sure to love! Soil erosion for kids is a fun way to include a little earth science into your lessons. Look for the free printable project included to make lesson planning easy!
Soil Erosion Demonstration For Kids
This soil science activity would be great to pair with these layers of soil activity or plate tectonics project.
Get Your FREE Printable Soil Erosion Project!
Supplies:
- Cookies or crackers
- Paper plate
- Toothpick
- Water dropper
- Straw
Instructions:
STEP 1: Grab a paper plate and a few cookies or crackers.
STEP 2: Use the straw to blow on your crackers. The straw simulates the wind. Record your observations.
STEP 3: Now poke the cracker with a toothpick. This simulates birds and animals pecking and poking around in the ground or soil, loosening it. Now blow with the straw again.
STEP 4: Add drops of water to simulate rain. What did you observe?
STEP 5: Record all of your observations on erosion and discuss what you learned.
What Is Soil Erosion?
Soil is a thin layer of material that covers the earth’s surface. It is made up of minerals, organic materials, air, water and living organisms. Soil can be easily degraded through the process of erosion. See our layers of soil activity.
Erosion is a natural process that occurs when soil, rocks, and other materials are worn away by wind, water, and other forces. It is a slow process that happens over time, but it can have a big impact on the environment.
Soil erosion is a problem because it means the loss of fertile land for farming. Land, which has soil eroded, is less able to hold onto water, which can make flooding worse.
It also leads to more pollution and sediment (sand and rocks) moving into streams and rivers, and a decrease in fish and other animals in those areas. Learn about storm water runoff.
What Causes Soil Erosion?
There are several ways that soil erosion can happen. Soil erosion can happen when large areas of forest are cleared. It exposes the topsoil, which can then be eroded by flowing water and wind.
Overgrazing of land is also another cause of soil erosion. Animals eat all the available grass, including the roots of plants. This makes the soil vulnerable to erosion by wind or water.
Types Of Erosion:
Water erosion happens when water flows over land, washing away soil and other materials. This can happen from rivers, streams, waves and even from rain.
Learn more about water erosion with an easy to set up beach erosion activity.
Wind erosion happens when winds blow over the ground, picking up soil and other materials and
carrying them away.
This happens when land is not covered with many grass or plants. For example; in desert and semi-desert regions where you get strong winds. Learn about biomes of the world.
How Do You Prevent Soil Erosion?
Without soil, plants can’t grow and animals would not have food to live! There are several ways to protect the soil and prevent soil erosion.
- Plant new trees and other plants to make sure exposed soil is protected.
- Between crops on farms, plant cover crops so the ground is not left bare.
- Grow a belt of trees around farmland to protect it from winds.
- On sloped land, use terraced farming.
- Put in measures to divert water and prevent flooding from major rivers.
More Fun Earth Science Activities
When you finish this soil erosion activity, why not explore more earth science with one of these ideas below. You can find all our geology activities for kids here!
Make your own tasty sedimentary rock to explore geology.
Explore the stages of the rock cycle with a crayon rock cycle or candy rock cycle!
Explore the layers of soil with simple LEGO bricks and with an edible soil layers model.
Make this printable soil layers diorama.
See tectonic plates in action with this hands-on project.
Grab some colored sand and glue for this fun layers of the earth activity.
Learn all about volcanos with these volcano facts, and even make your own volcano.
Printable Geology Pack
Kids love rocks, and this 100+ page Geology Pack is a fantastic way to encourage their passion for exploring, learning, and collecting!
WHAT’S INCLUDED:
- 8+ Hands-On Learning Activities exploring crystals, rocks, and volcanos
- Additional mini-packs include materials to learn about soil layers, layers of the earth, and the rock cycle!
- Extras include vocabulary words, fun games, and projects.
- Be a Collector Pack: start a rock collection like a geologist
- 3 Dioramas: Build 3 models including rock cycle, soil layers, and layers of the earth
