Topic: Eolian processes. Destroying activity of the wind

Addressee

First class of high school and technical high school (basic scope)

Core curriculum

V. Litosphere: relationship between the interior structure of the Earth and the tectonics of lithosphere plates, internal and external processes shaping the Earth's surface and their effects, rocks.

Student:

3) characterizes the main external processes modeling the Earth's surface (erosion, transport, accumulation) and the effects of the sculptural activity of rivers, wind, glaciers, glacier and seas, and weathering.

General aim of education

Explaining to students the sculptural role of the wind

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• you will explain the meaning of the aeolian processes;

• you will tell the main factors that favor the occurrence of aeolian processes;

• on the chosen example you will discuss the influence of wind on the formation of the relief.

Methods/techniques

• expository

  • talk.

• activating

  • discussion.

• exposing

  • exposition.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers;

• multimedia resources contained in the lesson „Destructive and building wind activity” in the e‑manual;

• physical map of the world.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

• Before classes, the instructor recommends the students to read at home with all the material from the lesson „Destructive and building wind activity” in the e‑textbook. It also asks them to find additional sources in available sources on the impact of wind on the shape of the desert, sandy coasts and other areas listed in the lesson..

Introduction

• In class, the teacher determines the purpose of the lesson, informing students about its planned course.

• Then he writes the topic of classes on the blackboard or interactive whiteboard. Students write it in notebooks.

• The teacher plays the recording of the abstract. Every now and then he stops it, asking the students to tell in their own words what they have just heard.This way, students practice listening comprehension.

Realization

• The lecturer indicates the person who will explain on the basis of the material acquired at home, what conditions must be met in order for the aeolian processes to take place. The student should mention a sufficiently strong wind, loose and fragmented ground, low humidity of the ground and skimmed vegetation. If the student's answer is incomplete, the teacher asks the other students to complete it.

• The teacher asks another student for an approach to the physical map of the world and an indication of the example areas on which conditions conducive to the destructive role of wind are met for most days of the year.

• Working in groups, students make a case study of a selected area (eg sand, gravel, etc.), trying to explain how the wind affects the formation of the relief in this area. If necessary, students can use the Internet and book publications available in the studio.

• Representatives of the groups discuss the sculptural role of wind in particular areas. After finishing all the statements, the teacher initiates an open discussion, the aim of which is to find differences and similarities in the course of aeolian processes in various places on the Earth's surface. Students also try to determine in what places these processes are marginal (eg areas with lush vegetation).

• The teacher discusses the types of deserts and explains what is the issue of corazja.

• The teacher presents and discusses the photo gallery. Students analyze the illustrations and answer the teacher's questions.

• Working individually, students solve interactive exercises from the abstract.

Summary

• The teacher goes on to summarize the lesson, during which the students can discuss any unclear issues and complete the notes.

• The teacher chooses one student by random method and asks him or her to explain in own words the meaning of a given word or concept learned during the lesson.

• The teacher asks the students questions:

  • What did you find important and interesting in class?

  • What was easy and what was difficult?

  • How can you use the knowledge and skills you have gained today?

  Willing/selected students summarize the lesson.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Eolian processes. Destroying activity of the wind

The destructive force of the wind consists in the blowing away of fine eluvial material, or in the grinding of rock surface by the sand carried by the wind. Only in exceptional situations can strong winds tear off small fragments of brittle rocks. The hitting with fine particles of sand carried by the wind can damage even hard rocks. However, this process is very slow. Therefore, above all, the transporting and building forces of the wind play a huge role in the shaping of terrain. When blowing almost incessantly, the wind is able to carry and lay off, in other places, large amounts of tiny grains of rock. However, in order for these processes to take place, the following factors should occur at the same time:

• the wind must be strong enough;

• the rocks in the substrate must be heavily disintegrated;

• the substrate must not be wet or covered with abundant vegetation.

For most of the day, and almost the entire year round, these conditions are fulfilled in deserts, and it is there that the ‘sculpting’ activity of the wind manifests itself most strongly. Hot deserts exist mainly in high atmospheric pressure areas in tropical zones, where atmospheric circulation causes extremely low rainfall. Deserts are also formed in subtropical and temperate zones in areas where distance from water bodies and the lay of the land contribute to the creation of extremely continental characteristics of the climate and the associated low rainfall. Depending on the nature of the substrate, there are three main types of deserts:

• erg (sand desert),

• serir (gravel desert),

• hamada (rock desert).

Wind also transforms the Earth’s surface on the sandy coasts of seas and oceans, on plowed farmland, in open‑pit mines, and on the forelands of glaciers and ice sheets, but only if the surface layer of soil and eluvium is dry. The processes associated with the activity of the wind are called eolian processes.

Depending on the speed, wind can lift larger or smaller grains of sand and dust. Maybe these grains hit the rocks and slowly grind, groove, smoothen and scratch. This process is called a corrasion. The closer to the Earth's surface, the more the sand is raised by the wind, and the process of corrasion is stronger. Therefore, rocks protruding above the desert surface are subject to the greatest damage in their lower part. As a result, various, sometimes very fanciful, rock forms are created. Rock fungi are rocks, which in the upper part are wider than in the lower part.