HEEELP, pleasee?

[Britt614]

I am suppose to be doing a model of something from 9th grade Earth Science, such as a flowing river, an active tidal wave, etc.
My teacher assigned this impossible project, and it is due within a week and a half. Does anyone know where i can find ideas that are affordable and not too much of a hassle?
I cannot seem to find anything anywhere!
I'm going CRAZY.


THANKS!

[Thescienceguy]

Britt614,

First off, nothing is impossible.

Second, I suggest that you do your project on something about the earth that you are interested in. If you are interested in oceans and rivers, you could possibly do a model about the sun and moon's gravitational pull affecting the tides (high tide and low tide). If you are interested in land, you could possibly do a model of the tetonic plates on earth and their movement.

Although these are not in-depth about the materials that you need, hopefully they will act as springboards for you to come up with some fun and interesting ideas.

[paulsdecarli]

With a pan full of dirt and a two-liter bottle of water, one might demonstrate how flowing water can carve out a stream bed. One could tilt the pan at various angles to examine the effect of slope on stream bed erosion.

Problem: Making a reproducible stream bed, i.e. packing the dirt the same for each experiment. What if the dirt was packed to the same density?

Does this help?

[deleted-2131]

You can model convection currents in the mantle and their effects on tectonic plates using a pan, candle, some bricks, and two sponges. Sit the pan up on the bricks and fill the pan halfway with water. Light the candle underneath the bricks. Put the sponges in the pan so that they float on the water. Watch what happens.

You can use a stove, hotplate, Bunsen burner, sterno, etc. instead of a candle.

[kathrynshewey]

Hi Brit,
Don't get discouraged with your science project, there are alot of project ideas out there that aren't too involved and aren't too expensive. One idea would be to test the effect of waves on sand, showing how beach erosion can occur. You could fill an aquarium with sand on the bottom and fill with water, and then make waves in the water with an item such as a wooden board, and measure the amount of sand buildup.
Hope this helps and good luck with your project!