How Wind Forms

Lab Brief #1

🎯 Your mission

Predict it first. Then prove yourself right (or wrong).

⚡ The twist

Today's mountain was yesterday's ocean floor.

What you'll learn

Wind forms when the sun heats Earth's surface unevenly, creating pressure differences. Air moves from high pressure to low pressure areas, and Earth's rotation curves the wind paths.

Key words

water cycle
The way water moves from clouds to rain to rivers and back.
weathering
When rocks slowly break apart from wind, water, and weather.

Make a hypothesis first

Guess: where will the water go first?

Say your guess out loud — then find out if you were right.

Get ready

🧰 What you need

rocks
water
plastic tray

⚠️ Safety first

Wash your hands thoroughly afterwards and keep the material away from your face.
Mop up spills straight away so nobody slips, and keep liquids away from sockets.

Step 1 of 4 · Read

Look at the vocabulary words and write a definition for each in your own words.

Step 2 of 4 · Do

Model erosion: tilt a tray of soil and pour water from a cup at the top. Observe how channels form. Try adding plants or rocks to slow the erosion.

Step 3 of 4 · Observe

Observe what happens and describe it in detail.

Step 4 of 4 · Record

Record your observations in your science journal with measurements and descriptions.

Question 1 of 3

What causes wind?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 2 of 3

Which type of rock forms under heat and pressure?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 3 of 3

How do fossils form?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Mind = blown

🌋 There are 1,500 active volcanoes on Earth right now.

Nice work!

You got 0 of 3 right.

Next: Weather Versus Climate All lessons

🎯

Next Smart Experiment

We'll pick an experiment that matches exactly how you're thinking right now.

✨ More to explore

🌍 Where you see this in real life: This is shaping the ground you walk on, slowly, every single day.

🏆 Stretch challenge (try it this week): Find a rock outside and try to guess how old it is.

👨‍👩‍👧 For the dinner table: “What's the slowest change you can think of?”

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How Wind Forms

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