How Caves Form

Lab Brief #3

🎯 Your mission

Set it up. Test it. Be amazed.

⚡ The twist

The slowest changes are the biggest ones.

What you'll learn

Caves form when slightly acidic water dissolves limestone over thousands of years. Stalactites hang from the ceiling and stalagmites grow from the floor as minerals are deposited.

Key words

mineral
A natural solid found in the ground that makes up rocks.
water cycle
The way water moves from clouds to rain to rivers and back.

Make a hypothesis first

Predict: which will erode faster?

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

Note any unexpected results and think about why they happened.

Step 4 of 4 · Record

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

Question 1 of 3

What type of rock forms from cooled magma?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 2 of 3

How do fossils form?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 3 of 3

What forms when tectonic plates collide?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Mind = blown

🪨 Every grain of sand on every beach used to be a mountain.

Nice work!

You got 0 of 3 right.

Next: How Deposition Builds Land 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 Caves Form

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