Landform processes learning stations bring Grade 3 Earth science into focus through five real-world landform investigations. In Changing Earth: Five Landform Investigations, students examine how water, wind, and ice reshape Earth's surface, moving rock, soil, and sediment through weathering, erosion, and deposition.

Rather than studying landforms as unchanging features, students explore the processes that create and alter them. Each investigation gives students an opportunity to consider evidence of landscape change and connect observable features to the natural forces responsible.

Explore How Earth's Surface Changes

The activity focuses on three important Earth science processes:

• Weathering: Explore how rocks and other surface materials break down over time.
• Erosion: Identify how moving water, wind, and ice transport rock, soil, and sediment.
• Deposition: Describe how transported sediment settles and contributes to landform changes.

Students also consider how these processes interact. Material can be broken down, transported to another location, and deposited elsewhere. Comparing real landform changes helps students recognize that Earth's surface is continually changing.

Five Investigations, One Connected Learning Experience

This Grade 3 science activity uses a learning stations format. Students move between case-study cards, examine information about landform changes, and record their observations and explanations on a separate station recording sheet.

The station tasks emphasize identifying natural processes, describing the movement of Earth materials, and comparing evidence from real examples. Students practice using observations, photographs, and maps as sources of information about changes to the landscape.

After completing the investigations, the station wrap-up provides an opportunity to bring the examples together and consider similarities and differences in how landforms change.

What's Included

• Station cards: Five landform investigation cards for classroom rotation.
• Student recording sheet: A dedicated place to document findings from the stations.
• Station wrap-up: A follow-up activity for connecting ideas across investigations.
• Teacher Guide: Included in the Answer Key PDF, with learning objectives, teaching tips, discussion questions, and common mistakes.

Using the Stations in Your Classroom

Place the investigation cards at different locations around the classroom. Small groups begin at separate stations, read the information, and complete their recording sheets before rotating to the next location.

Once students have visited every station, bring the class together for the wrap-up. Use the Teacher Guide's discussion questions to compare examples, clarify the differences between weathering, erosion, and deposition, and address misconceptions about how landforms develop.

Build Explanations From Real Evidence

This resource connects elementary Earth science vocabulary to observable changes in the natural world. The separate recording sheet keeps students' responses organized, while the case-study approach encourages them to explain what happened rather than simply memorize definitions.

Use these Grade 3 Earth surface changes activities to support an Earth's systems unit, introduce landform investigations, or reinforce evidence-based scientific explanations through collaborative station work.