Rivers for life

Investigate the importance of the Nile to life in Egypt and make a simulation model with water flowing through a crop of cress seeds.

Teaching Outcomes:

• To understand how the availability of water (or lack of it) determines the type of land (farmland or desert) and the distribution of the population, with particular reference to Egypt.
• To set up a simulation to investigate the effect of a river flowing through a desert on the growth of crops.

Children will:

• Learn about the importance of the Nile to life in Egypt and answer key questions about it for a display.
• Make a simulation model of Egypt with the River Nile flowing through it, planting cress seeds to simulate crops.

• Questions about the river Nile
• Make a river valley

• Google Earth
• Plastic school storage trays
• An atomiser water spray
• 5 strong carrier bags
• Strong tape
• Kitchen paper
• 5 small pots of PVA glue diluted 1:1 with water
• About 40 small stones or pebbles
• 5 packets of cress seeds
• Access to the internet
• Printouts from websites on the Nile
• Atlases

The importance of the River Nile for life in Egypt from ducksters.com
Lots of interesting facts about the Nile from primaryfacts.com