Nature Disaster 1: Flood and Land Slide

Nature Disaster 1: Flood and Land Slide
-(Nature Experiments)-

Important note for Indonesian teachers: nature disaster= disaster happened in our environment, related with nature activity and + or human/other activity (not only by nature). The means of "nature" just to show that it happened in our environment, but not to strictly limit the cause only by nature / non human factors.

Hello again teachers. This time I try to build a module that fix into nature disaster topics. For the first module I took "flood" topic cos it happened now in my town Bogor. Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia also strike by the flood in 2006 and it really bad.

In junior high school -in Indonesia the West Java government also tell the school to prepare for the topics of nature disaster in environment education curriculum, for one semester in first grade. So, I hope this writing can help teachers to make their own module, as a part to understand some ecological system in our environment.

To talk about nature disaster: flood and land slide, I made two separate experiments to show kids the process of flood. I believe lecturing is not enough and great discussion only occurred when the participants feel/see/touch what really happened. I suggest that we also can use movie clip as a media when this experiments cannot be done.

Needs
1. A model that can describe land, made from sand / soil/other matter. Different type of soil is needed if we want to explain more about relation between soil type and porosity.
2. Water and shower
3. A model like number 1, but this time use and mix the model with cotton or water absorber matter (use tissue paper for instance)

Then start the experiments. You can shower water into the model to see what happened. A "bald" land (made from only sand / soil will be vulnerable for a slide.

For the second model (that also contain water absorber matter in the surface), the water will run more slowly. If we use more cotton and cover it into all surfaces, the matter will absorb most of the water.

A guide for teachers:
1. A flood happened when the water intensity (from the rain) is much bigger than the land capacity to absorb the water. Land always need time to absorb water, regarding its porosity so when there are no tree, humus, or a lake that slow or absorb water, a big part of water will run directly into the river / low land and cause a flood. Sometimes it take not only water but also log, garbage and make it more even dangerous specially in populated /low land area.
2. Land slide is also related with soil porosity and water. Some plants can protect the land by holding soil with their root. Their leaves and branch also protect the land from direct intensity of the sun and rain, and keep the land humidity.
3. Flood and land slide also related with human activity. Mention that landfill, mining, deforestation, and other development can effect land stabilization and capacity

Ask children about the flood:
- According to them, why flood and land slide happened in their first experiment? Is the "disaster" intensity decrease when they use water absorber matter in their second experiments?
- Ask them (or you tell them) if there any place near your environment that have flood and land slide problem. Encourage them to tell the story about what happened and why this was happened?
- In our environment, what kind of water absorber / reservoir is present around us? (hope they can tell us about forest, lake, garden, etc). Don't forget to ask them is the quality and quantity of this place is enough to protect our place from flood and land slide?
- What can we do to protect our area from flood and land slide? Give them clue that a small action is also benefit the environment, while they also can tell about their plan when they already a grown up... ^_^



Picture taken from google images

Measure Pollution with Plate

Measure Pollution with Plate
-(Nature Experiment)-

Hello again... Two months ago I found a book, written by David Suzuki and it talk about environment education. I buy this book with discount (an old book, 90') but this is a good book for sure, and I'm very happy to found this treasure...

This is about how to measure pollution in your place. It will work in your classroom, in the forest, in your backyard, everywhere...

Needs
Plate, vaseline / oil / jelly

The idea is very simple. Bring children to a polluted place (like near a busy road - in front of your school). Place a plate, but before you do that, you can coat the plate surface by vaseline / oil / jelly).

Then we can wait for a moment. You can decide how long you will wait (an hours, half day or one day?). You can check the plate later and found that many things stick with to the plate (dust, feather, pollen, leaves, etc).

Place another plate in a cleaner atmosphere environment. Do same steps to get result to compare.

Discussion:
- Is there any differences between places for pollution? Do you find same pollutant?
- The quality and quantity for each pollutant
- Relate it with forest / garden function as air filter
- Ask them, from where the pollutant come from?

Picture taken from http://lahore.meltblogs.com

Sketching the Leaves

Sketching the Leaves
-(Nature Experiment)-

This is an activity for children or even a gown up, to intoduce plant biodiversity. Leaves, the main object of this activity are being use to identified plant species.

It was better to do this "sketching the leaves" in a garden or forest. Why ? Because then you will feel, see and smell better. But if you can't do that, just bring photos, sample of leaves in your class.

Needs
Paper, pencil

First, you can choose how to draw the leaves. You can make a sketch by observe the leaves, or/and you can rub the leaves (with pencil and paper) so you can get leaves appearance.

After 30 to 60 minutes you can gather under the tree and discuss:
- how many species did they found today?
- Can they organize and manage the leaves into different character of leaves (looks, they learn classification now ^^ )
- Ask them : what is the use of the leaves for living creature (plant itself, bird, insects, human, lizard, worm, fish...)
- Stick with the third question because you always can make another question from it :
- What happened if the tree doesn't have many leaves?
- What do you know about oxygen produced by a tree?
- Is there any connection between forest, river and the sea?
- You go on with the question (and I can take a bath now ^_^)

Feed the Plant

Feed the Plant
-(Nature Experiment)-

Animal, human eat vegetables... but how the plant eat? Can we see the process?

Needs
Parsley, glass, water, food dye

Cut the parsley, put it into a glass of water. Use 3 glasses of water in this activity (one as control, two for the experiment). Use food dye to coloring the water. A tea spoonful of dye will be enough.

And let our experiement works. Wait until 1 day to see what happened to our plant. The color of the plant will change after some times.

Point to discuss:
- How the plant absorb water (also contain mineral in it) and then use it as material to produce energy, food and more.
- Explain how important is water in material transportation for the plant
- What happened if agriculture use to much pesticide?
- Food health for human, organic farming and how to keep balance between human activity and nature conservation

Picture taken from http://kathy-lilia.blogspot.com and www.ehow.com

Seed Growth and Pollution

Seeds Growth and Pollution
-(Nature Experiment)-

This is a kind of experiment to show that external factor also influence plant / other living creature growth. We also can discuss about adaptation, relate it with evolution, sub species / variant diversity.

Needs
Kind of seeds that came from one parents. Example : bean seeds

Why we do this experiments with seeds that came from one parents? You should ask students when do this activity.

I think some junior and highschool students can answer this question, related with genetic topics. But in my opinion, seeds that came from one parents will have more same character rather than if we take it from random sample. It's also acceptable to get random sample from one plant species. Pick a same size seeds will be fine.

We like to have an "apple to apple" comparison. As a teachers you should explain a small things like this because it will make students start to follow scientific method to find the fact.

Lets make treatment like this:
WATER
A : clear water
B : semi polluted water (example, from semi polluted river)
C : poluted water (example, mixed with some oil / detergent)
SOIL
1 : humus
2 : sand + soil
3 : soil being damaged by chemical fertilizer (NPK)

In this experiments, mix seeds with A1, A2, A3. The other seeds will be B1, B2, B3 and the others are with C1, C2, C3.

We have to do exactly the same treatments for all objects. It means that we also gave same light intensity, same spray intensity, etc.

After some weeks, look the different between all objects (in this activity it will be 9 objects. But if we did it in groups, maybe it can be 18, 27 or more - and it will make we analyze better).

Which one grow better ? Why ? Make a discussion with the kids...Try to make the topics wider according your speciality...

Tiny Sea Craeture
-(Nature Experiments)-

This time I will explain shortly. When I'm still a student and in a try to finish my green turtle research, there was a time when I get bored because nobody left in my research station. Electricity will be on, only after 18.00 and my only friend beside my local friend Mr. Endang is a radio that only can catch AM frequency.

I'm spending my time reading books, old magazine and come to the beach, collecting sea shells, looking for seaweed and more.

First time, the beach, although we see some fish and some living creature there, looks empty. Then accidentally, because I want to keep a seaweed in my artificial habitat, I collect some seaweed, sea grass and some dead corals into my box (fill with sea water).

Then in 5 minutes, amazing thing happened, and I know I will never see the sea in same side. Hundred of tiny sea creature begin to show after 5 minutes and more, after 10 minutes. Little crab, shrimp, some snails, worm, and hundred of sea creatures begin to arise and full my box with life...

So, if you want to see a sea creature, you may also bring a jar of glass (or just bring a glass). Collect some seaweed, dead coral and put it in your glass. Look closely. After 5 to 10 minutes you will see that biodiversity took a very wide range. Hope you will be an artist, a teacher, a writer, an engineer that love your environment ^^

Picture taken from http://www.carolscornwall.com/On%20the%20Beach/Seaweed-Sargassum%20muticum13-01-09.jpg and http://oceansage.com/blogpics/sea.jpg

Decomposition Status

Decomposition Status
-(Nature Experiment)-

This is a kind of a simple experiment to show children about decomposition process happened in our environment. This activity can be a useful activity to start dicussion about some of environmental topics (you can pick one of the topics below - or you can create it yourself)

First, we can find some leaves. Then we tie a line (a plastic, to mark position) to this leaves. Burried some of them in the backyard (a 5 to 10 cm deep is acceptable) and we will dig for it after some weeks.

We also do a same experiment in a jar contain clear water, and a jar contain mud (if you have a better place - like in the side of a river, just do it ^_^). Don't forget to make sure to have the line tied nicely, so we can easily know the location of our experiments (specially for the one in our backyard). For control, leave some leaves in open air.

Look for the result after 1, 2, and 3 weeks.
Questions:
1. Which leaves gone earlier (decomposed faster)? Why? - relate the answer with bacteria, and some living creature that help decomposition process...
2. What will our environment looks if the decomposition process never happened in our world?
3. Do you have any idea how to make this decomposition process faster? - example answer : with adding more decomposer-bacteria, in more practical activity-like adding more soil (contain many bacteria in it), fertilizer (source of energy for the bacteria),...

Hints:
-After this experiment, we also may discuss about humus layer, organic farming, making bio-fertilizer, economic value of bio-fertilizer,...(you go on)
-Do same experiment with anorganic matter to show how long it will take to decay - then we can talk about recycle products, environmental problem caused by anorganic matter (trash), healthy life and more...

Picture taken from http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3335/3509943070_255da84b73.jpg?v=0

Mini Ecosystem

Mini Ecosystem
-(Nature Experiment)-

This is a competition activity for the children while they learn about ecosystem. The purpose of this "Mini Ecosystem" activity is to show complex relation between biotic and abiotic factors in a small scale ecosystem. When "Mini Ecosystem" become stable from the beginning until the end of experiment, we may give children good score. Don't forget to ask the process and their argumentation, not only for the results, so the score will be given according : final results and argumentations

Needs
Some glass jars / small aquariums, plastic wraps, rubbers, some small water snails

Day 0-2:
First divide children into groups. They will have one glass jar (or a small aquarium) to decorate. Fill the jar with water.
You may help them in general, explain about relation between biotic and abiotic factors in ecosystem,
1. Give two days to the groups to let them decide what things are better to make a stable ecosystem.
2. Let them decide the water source for the experiments

Hints: a group that use water from a pond will get good score - because it rich with organic and anorganic matter (also it consist more phytoplankton, zooplankton, bacteria,..). A clear water will get only normal score.

Day 3-13:
Fill the jar with a snail and then other biotic and abiotic things (they choose themselves). Close the jar with plastic wrap. They may choose a place to put their experiments (they will decide direct sunlight intensity for their experiments). After picking places, they are not allowed to move the place, open the plastic wrap until it finish (day 14).

Day 14:
They may look their experiments. Are they make a stable mini ecosystem in their jar?

Question to discuss (just for an example):
- IS the snail still alive - why?
- Do you put plant in the water - why?
- Explain the relation between biotic and abiotic factors in this experiment
- Are we created a stable ecosystem from the beginning?
- Are the ecosystem reach stable condition in the end of the experiment? Why you say that?
- What is the meaning of a stable condition for an ecosystem?

There are no just "yes or no" answer. The best answer is if the children can explain the condition according scientific answer. Not to be forgotten, you also can add one more experiment, to show the children about pollution effect: add one experiment with pollution matter like detergent or oil... the result will be shown later and then, we also can discuss about water pollution.

Global Warming 2 (Sea Level)

Global Warming 2 (Sea Level)
-(Nature Experiment)-

Hello guys... this time we want to talk about global warming effect in sea level rising. This experiment, in my opinion, can be an opening activity to the children for the issue.

Needs
2 block of ice, some container, time counter / watch, a tools to measure water volume.

We can do this activity related with math, nature and social science, so the time is very flexible.

1. Calculate ice volume (with some math formula). We assume the ice is solid (even in the fact, maybe there is some empty space in the ice)
2. Put the ice in the container, and then put ONE in direct sunlight, and the other one in the sheltered place / room.
3. In 10 minutes (or 15 minutes if the ice is bigger) the children may count how much water (from the melting ice) are in the container (use the tools, like a simple liquid measurer)

We may modified this experiment with:
- Different size / shape of ice
- Different sunlight intensity (morning, day, noon)

We can discuss more with help from some question. like
- Which is melting faster? The ice in the outer place (with direct sunlight) or in the sheltered place?
- Why they melting faster? -also relate this question with global warming topic, earth temperature increase faster for some previous decade.
- What is the effect for the sea level and the land if this happened in earth?
- What can we do for stop / minimalize global warming?

Picture taken from http://www.flickr.com/photos/shoogior/683664631/ and http://thm-a02.yimg.com/image/ea19ec643d36d19a

Global Warming 1 (Temperature Rising)

Global Warming 1 (Temperature Rising)
-(Nature Experiment)-

It is a simple nature experiment about temperature rising cause by global warming

Needs
A glass, plastic wrap / bag, rubber, thermometer.

First, fill the glass with water. Put the glass in a plastic wrap / bag. Make sure that the air can not escape freely from the plastic. For control, just fill a glass with water (control means that this glass for standard of comparison only)

shadow. The idea is toPut experiment and control outside the class. You can put it under a tree avoid direct sunlight while the temperature still in normal range.

After 1 or 2 hour, you can check the water temperature with thermometer. Which water is hotter?

Discuss this issue:
- Carbondioxide and some gas have similar role like the plastic, it will hold the heat.
- What is the effect for global warming?

In more extreme and shocking part from this activity, that will show to the kids about global warming danger effects to living thing, you can put a small fish into a warm water. When the fish die, we can warn children that global warming effects also killing living thing. For this part of activity, you may choose children older than 12. They will remember about the danger, just explain carefully about why you do that.

Watching A Tree Grow

Watching A Tree Grow
-(Nature Experiment)-

Hello ... This time I like to share you a simple nature experiment that we can use to make children more aware about plant grow. In more advance discussion it' s not just a simple discussion. If your background is biology, you know that we also can discuss about :
- Sunlight effect for different plant species
- Which kind of light is good for plant grow (is it blue, red, yellow light?)
- Kind of fertilizer that better for the plant
- The influence of classic music for the plant :P (I like this idea, do you?)...

In basic, we just discuss about plant grow, what basic matter they need to grow. It just a simple experiment but help children to start caring greener and increase their feel to living creature.

Needs:
Pot, seeds

Activity : plant a seed for each kid. Measure how long the plant will grow each 4 or 5 day. Make a notes in this kind of table:

Day	High(mm)	Leaves	Information
0	?	?	?
4	?	?	?
8	?	?	?
…	…	…	…
60 ?	…	…	…

Ask this question to them (it's a key to open more discussion):
- What kind of seed do you plant (is it a corn, a lettuce, a peanut or a papaya?)
- According to your oppinions, why different species have different growth rate? - talk about species diversity
- Is it also related with external factor like sunlight, disease, soil fertilizer, water, and more?
- How you can make your plant grow better?

After this experiment, to conduct a good bussines - eco enterpreneurship - in my idea, can we sell their product (well, it's good to decorate the pot first) in school bazar? I think the parents will buy their products, don't you think :) ?

Raft and River

Raft and River -(Nature Experiment)-

As we always know, there's many method to learn about environment. We always can integrate environment education into math, biology, social science, anything. This experiment is one of them:

First we make a simple boat from tree branch or something else (in Indonesia there's a children play to make ship from banana tree stalk, water lily and other water plant. The main idea is to teach local wisdom, traditional game, and how to make children think creative.

And then, look for a small river. For each group, we divide children into : counter and player. Counter will write data while player keep watching the raft in the river, then.

Make a finish line, 10 meter from the start point. Children will drift the raft (don't forget to connect it with a line first, so the raft will not go to the sea :P ) in your instruction. And when the raft reach finish line, they count the distance and the time. Repeat 10 times and do this experiment for 20 meter (so they will learn about the use of statistic)

Make a table and look for its mean (you may add more for modus, etc if you like)

Discuss this topic:
1. Can we find current velocity from this river ?
2. If I want to deliver a thing (letter in a bottle maybe) through this river into someone stand 12 km from here (let assume there's no trouble for that bottle), how long will it takes?
3. If someone poisoning this river, from this point, how long will it takes to reach Jakarta City (example only) - so the children will start looking for a map, calculate with scale and so on...
4. Do you realize that it realy happened (case no 3) ? What thing we must do to minimize water pollution ? Can we stop water pollution ? - so the children will start to argue each other...
5. Make a promise together that we will stop or minimize water pollution from ourselves... :)

Cartoon picture taken from http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/840/10097052.JPG

Circle Census

Circle Census
-(Nature Experiment)-

This is a simple environmental activity to make children or adult realize, that many life forms ADA around us. In our bussy day, sometimes we didn't notice that they are move, eat, sleep or flying. It's all about tiny forms that construct our environment.

Needs :
Lines and stake (optional)

We may do this activity in our garden, forest, field, or even near a trash can, so it will be flexible. First we can make a cirle by holding hand together (if there are a lot of friends) or for less people, we can make a circle/square by lines. It's all up to you to make bigger or smaller circle.

Then we divide children into groups. Each of them try to recognize if there is any creatures live in his/her circle area. If there is to many participants, you can make another circle, or divide the circle with lines into smaller area. Try to look under the soil, leaves, rotten branch to see if there are some small life forms.If your inner circle is a tree, sometimes you will find more creatures likely. Don't forget to check the wood apertures also.

After that, children will notes kind and number of creatures they found. If we also calculate the large of the circle, we can find the average density of each creatures (we will learn about the practical use of mathematics too with this activity)

My suggestion, after this activity we can discuss more about:
1. Small and tiny creatures diversity, and their functions in environment
2. Different creatures in different habitat (if we do this activity in different area)
2. Tree/pond/... functions to support small life forms (what happened if a tree/pond/... is loss.
3. Try to relate this activity with much bigger case (forest degradation, property change,...) with help from an article, news or movie
4. Or just have some fun. Don't be to serious-be simply, after all we start to love the nature if we enjoy nature activity :)

Oxygen Product of My Own

Oxygen Product of My Own
-(Nature Experiment)-

When we stand below a big tree in the day, we feel fresh. It is because the tree produce a lot of oxyigen we need to breathe. It also protect us from direct sunlight, so we can sit for a rest when it is to hot to walk in open area.

How much oxygen is produced by a plant? We can guess a number of it, but without makin an experiment and without a data, it seems hard to do that count. Many people ignore about forest and plants because they do not see or feel the functions. When we see clearly what really happened, and how it can benefit us, I believe that we will think more serious to save the planet :) That is our purpose with this experiment.

Needs
A kind of sinking water plant
A transparent drinking glass or a small aquarium
Rubber and plastic wrap

Pick a water plant that sink in the water, for example hydrilla, water grass, or something else. If you find trouble, you can buy it in the fish / pet shop. In my country there is a special market that sell many things related with water life, including fishes, plants, the food, aquarium and more. Can you found a kind of of market in your country?

Then fill ¾ part of the glass with water. Put the plant in the glass and seal the glass with plastic wrap and rubber, so the air can not escape freely. After that, bring the glass and put it in the place exposed by direct sunlight.

Soon the plant will start doing photosynthetic activity and some oxygen bubbles will appear. After 5 to 10 minutes, open the plastic and let some kids inhale their “own made” oxygen. Ask them about their feeling (do not foget, asking about feelings also can make a kid familiar to express their thinking).

This is some of their answer :
Happy, I create my own oxygen
I feel funny, I never think that this plant producing oxygen
Happy, I want to create more oxygen with my plants
I wonder how much oxygen produced in my backyard?
I think I smell an oxygen…

For intermediate and advance, we can modify this experiment into:
- Making the water turbid by mix the water with food colour or other kind of dye (we can discuss about water pollution then, and how it related with the lost of oxygen productivity in water)
- Try to find the data in the internet about numbers of oxygen productivity / carbon absorption in a forest and carbon release by industry, then we can discuss how we need to make balance between this number.

Secret Seeds

Secret Seeds
-(Nature Experiment)-

It’s so interesting to see how the life begin from watching the seed grow up and become a plant. From a small seeds, children and adult learn about calmness while watching the seed grow up. We also learn about care discipline when we give them enough water and light that they need to photosynthesis activity.

Needs:
some “secret” seeds, potflower (a glass if you want see more clear), soil, label

To make more fun, give the children a seed that they do not know its name. It can be because they never seen the seed before (or maybe if they already know about the seed, try to find another from different place – local variety seed sometimes looks different). Later you can also try different culture method like cutting, leaf planting to know different part of plant that can be grown (intermediate experiment)

Give assignment to children and you can make a contest, which children or team will correctly guess the name of the plant that they grow. Before they found the name, they can create their own names (don't we remember that children love to name their own “pet”?) like : Tiny John, Rufus americana - this is if you want them to be familiar with binomial nomenclature things :).

Give presents for instance : handicraft from recycle product (cool isn’t it?) to first, second and other winner. We can also make other story to tell children about the habitat of the plant with photos, movies and etc if we want to make the happiness continue.

Goodluck for your experiment...