How Rivers Shape Land

Lab Brief #6

🎯 Your mission

Master the concept. Use it tomorrow.

⚡ The twist

Today's mountain was yesterday's ocean floor.

What you'll learn

River systems shape the land over time. Young rivers have steep, V-shaped valleys. Mature rivers meander across floodplains. Old rivers have wide, flat valleys and deltas.

Key words

watershed
An area of land where all the water drains to one river or lake.
water cycle
The way water moves from clouds to rain to rivers and back.

Make a hypothesis first

Guess: where will the water go first?

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

Step 1 of 3 · Read

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

Step 2 of 3 · Observe

Note any unexpected results and think about why they happened.

Step 3 of 3 · Record

Share your findings with the class or a partner and discuss what you learned.

Question 1 of 3

What is the water cycle?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 2 of 3

What is the rock cycle?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 3 of 3

What forms when tectonic plates collide?

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: How Hurricanes Form All lessons

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✨ 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 Rivers Shape Land

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