Exploring Land and Water introduces Grade 2 students to the causes and effects of changes to landforms. Students will tour six different national parks to explore distinctive landforms and how they are affected by wind and water: Mount Rushmore National Memorial’s rock face; Glacier National Park’s glaciers, lakes, and streams; Arches National Park’s wind erosion; Yellowstone National Park’s geysers and volcanoes; Yosemite National Park’s rock, land, and mudslides; and Cape Cod National Seashore’s sand dunes.

In Exploring Land and Water students visit America’s national parks, a treasure-trove of significant landforms with opportunities to explore the effects of wind and water on land. By touring six of the national parks, students explore different types of landforms, including mountains, hills, sand dunes, geysers, volcanoes, and arches, and how they are changed quickly and over long periods of time by wind and water. Students learn about different bodies of water, such as glaciers, streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans. Students investigate how wind and water affect rock erosion over years and years and see how quickly wind and water can change landforms through mudslides, flooding, and shifting sands.

Scientists, including geologists and geographers, observe, analyze, and study Earth processes and changing landforms to describe patterns in the natural world to answer scientific questions. This series of lessons incorporates learning goals that support scientific principles and practices, such as analyzing and interpreting data, recognizing cause and effect, and planning and carrying out investigations.