Soil Erosion Experiment:

Procedure:
1. Cut the top part of a plastic bottle off when it is lying on its side. It should look like a
boat.

2. Take another plastic bottle and cut the bottom part off at about 3”.

3. Attach a pipe cleaner to the bottom you cut from the bottle and loop it over the
opening of the bottle.

4. Fill the bottle that looks like a boat half full with soil. DO NOT MAKE A MESS.

5. Add your erosion reducing material to your bottle.

6. Each member of your group will place their bottles next to each other in a line.

7. Make one “control” bottle with only soil in it.

8. Each person fill one clear cup half full of water from the sink.

9. Once each person has their water go back to your soil “boats.”

10. At the same time, SLOWLY pour your water into the back end of your boat.

11. Complete your observation sheet immediately after all of the water has been poured
into the boat.
Observation sheet:
What is soil erosion?

Why do we want to reduce or eliminate soil erosion?

Observation Table:

Bottle
Number
Material in
bottle

Observations

What color is
the water
that comes
out of the
bottle?
How much
soil erosion
happened?

Is this
material
effective in
eliminating
erosion?
How do you
know?