Success Homeschool

Year 4 Science · Weathering and erosion

Name: ______________________

Date: ____________

1. What is weathering?
- ☐ (a) Rock being carried away by a river
- ☐ (b) Rock being broken into smaller pieces
- ☐ (c) Rain falling from clouds
- ☐ (d) Sand being dropped in a delta
2. Which is an example of erosion?
- ☐ (a) A river carrying soil downstream
- ☐ (b) Ice forming in a freezer
- ☐ (c) A seed sprouting
- ☐ (d) Clouds forming
3. How do plant roots help stop erosion?
- ☐ (a) They make rain stop
- ☐ (b) They hold the soil together
- ☐ (c) They turn soil into rock
- ☐ (d) They make the wind stronger
4. Which mainly shaped the Twelve Apostles on the Victorian coast?
- ☐ (a) Volcanoes
- ☐ (b) Earthquakes
- ☐ (c) People digging
- ☐ (d) Waves eroding the cliffs
5. In the sand-tray test, which change would make it a fair test?
- ☐ (a) Using a steeper slope for one tray
- ☐ (b) Pouring more water on one tray
- ☐ (c) Keeping the slope and amount of water the same
- ☐ (d) Using different sand in each tray
6. When moving water slows down and drops the sand it carries, this is called d__________.
7. Small pieces of rock and soil carried by water are called s________.
8. Which erodes faster: bare soil or soil covered with plants?

Answer sheet

1. Rock being broken into smaller pieces — Weathering breaks rock down; erosion carries it away.
2. A river carrying soil downstream — Moving water carrying soil away is erosion.
3. They hold the soil together — Roots bind soil so water and wind cannot easily carry it away.
4. Waves eroding the cliffs — Waves wore away soft limestone, leaving stacks of rock standing in the sea.
5. Keeping the slope and amount of water the same — Only the ground cover should change; everything else stays the same.
6. deposition — Dropping sediment is deposition.
7. sediment — These small pieces are sediment.
8. bare soil — Bare soil has nothing to protect it from rain and wind.