All About
Land Formation
Investigation Data Sheet
The Force of Moving Water
6. Repeat the procedure twice, first pouring the water quickly,
then slowly. Record any observations.
The land is moved about on the Earth’s surface by a variety of
means — primarily by streams, wind and ocean currents.
Objective
Demonstrate how moving water affects land formation.
Materials
— a large baking pan with high sides
— clean, moist sand mixed with pebbles
— a large paper cup
— a pencil
— a pitcher of water
— a partner
• There should be channels or trenches worn into your sand
mountain where the moving water carried sand away. Some
of these will be small and shallow. These will be your
pretend stream beds. Others will be deeper and larger
because more water moved through them. These will
be your pretend river beds. These deep river beds may have
created tiny valleys in the side of your mountain. The water
should also have pooled at the far end of the pan. This is
your ocean. Much of the sand that was carried away from
the mountain will have been left here. This is your river delta.
Procedure
Conclusions
1. First, create a mountain slope. Shape the sand and
pebble mixture against one end of your baking pan into a
mini-mountain.
• How does the speed of the moving water affect the land
formation? What happened to the sand and pebbles when
the water was moving more quickly?
2. Now form the mountain so that it slopes down toward the
far side of the pan. Make your slope drop steeply at first,
then gradually level out so that it is nearly flat. You should
end up with a thin edge of sand just before it reaches the far
end of the baking pan.
3. Use your pencil to carefully poke several holes in the
bottom of the cup. The cup will be your rainmaker, or
source of moving water.
4. What do you think will happen when the rain falls on the
mountain? Draw or explain what you expect to see.
• Compare what you see with areas where the water was
poured more slowly.
• In which case were the river and stream beds wider and
shallower?
*Remember, this was only a demonstration. Although this
model gives you an idea of how moving water like rain
affects landforms, in the real world, things usually happen
much more slowly, often over thousands or millions of years.
5. One partner should hold the cup steady over the top of the
mountain while the other partner slowly pours water
through the cup. Observe what happens as the cup “rains”
on the mountain. Draw what you see. (Use the other side of
the paper if you need more room.)
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