Download Unit Name: Earth`s History - Red Clay Secondary Science Wiki

Unit Name: Earth’s History
Topic/Sub-Unit: Studying The Earth Scientifically
Which Standards are students learning in this unit?
Standard 1.1.A: Understand that scientific investigations involve asking a focused scientific
question. Investigations differ depending upon the question being asked.
(Essential)
Standard 1.1.B: Understand that: Fair test design supports the validity of the investigation.
Sometimes it is not possible to know everything that will have an effect on the investigation or
control all conditions.
(Essential)
Standard 1.1.C: Understand that: The purpose of accurate data collection is to provide evidence
to compare with the prediction.
(Essential)
Standard 1.1.D: Understand that: The body of scientific knowledge grows as scientists ask
questions, conduct investigations, develop explanations and compare results with what is already
known.
(Essential)
Standard 1.1.E: Understand that: The purpose of communicating is to share and justify results.
Scientists communicate their results to others, including the details that allow others to replicate
the results.
(Essential)
Standard 1.1.F: Understand that: Scientific habits of mind and other sources of knowledge and
skills are essential to scientific inquiry. Habits of mind include tolerance of ambiguity,
skepticism, openness to new ideas, and objectivity. Other knowledge and skills include
mathematics, reading, writing, and technology.
(Important)
Standard 1.2.A. Advances in technology can expand the body of scientific knowledge.
Technological tools allow people to observe objects and phenomena that otherwise would not be
possible. Technology enhances the quality, accuracy, speed and analysis of data gathered.
(Important)
1.3.A. Over the course of human history, contributions to science have been made by different
people from different cultures. Studying some of these contributions and how they came about
provides insight into the expansion of scientific knowledge.
Level: Compact
By the end of this unit, students will be able to…
Know:
Vocabulary:
Observation
Inference
Geologist
Geology
Understand:
Scientific inquiry involves
using experimental design
accurately to expand our
scientific knowledge of the
Earth.
Do:
Observe landforms and draw
logical conclusions based
upon the observations.
Study the scientific
contributions of John Wesley
Powell and describe how the
contributions expanded the
body of scientific knowledge.
Generate testable questions
based on observations.
Design and conduct
investigations to test
hypotheses.
Collect accurate data using
appropriate tools and methods.
Organize data into tables,
graphs, and charts.
Analyze data, form
conclusions and communicate
the results.
Form explanations based on
conclusions and known
scientific information.
Unit Name: Earth’s History
Topic/Sub-The Rock Cycle
Which Standards are students learning in this unit?
Standard 1.1.A: Understand that scientific investigations involve asking a focused scientific question.
Investigations differ depending upon the question being asked.
(Essential)
Standard 1.1.B: Understand that: Fair test design supports the validity of the investigation. Sometimes it
is not possible to know everything that will have an effect on the investigation or control all conditions.
(Essential)
Standard 1.1.C: Understand that: The purpose of accurate data collection is to provide evidence to
compare with the prediction.
(Essential)
Standard 1.1.D: Understand that: The body of scientific knowledge grows as scientists ask questions,
conduct investigations, develop explanations and compare results with what is already known.
(Essential)
Standard 1.1.E: Understand that: The purpose of communicating is to share and justify results.
Scientists communicate their results to others, including the details that allow others to replicate the
results.
(Essential)
Standard 1.1.F: Understand that: Scientific habits of mind and other sources of knowledge and skills are
essential to scientific inquiry. Habits of mind include tolerance of ambiguity, skepticism, openness to
new ideas, and objectivity. Other knowledge and skills include mathematics, reading, writing, and
technology.
(Important)
Standard 1.3.A. Advances in technology can expand the body of scientific knowledge. Technological
tools allow people to observe objects and phenomena that otherwise would not be possible. Technology
enhances the quality, accuracy, speed and analysis of data gathered.
(Important)
5.1.C. The formation of sediment and soil requires a long period of time as rocks are weathered, eroded
and deposited.
Important
5.2.D. Constructive processes that build up the land and the destructive processes of weathering and
erosion shape and reshape the land surface.
The height of Earth landforms is a result of the difference between the rate of uplift and the rate of erosion
at a particular location.
Important
By the end of this unit, students will be able to…
Know:
Vocabulary:
Sedimentary Rock
Sandstone
Limestone
Shale
Metamorphic Rock
Igneous Rock
Rock cycle
Weathering
Erosion
Deposition
Understand:
Processes of weathering,
erosion and deposition that
change Earth’s surface today
are the same processes that
occurred in the past.
The surface of the Earth is
constantly changing due to
processes that cause rock to
change from one kind to
another. Landforms on Earth
are created and destroyed by
the processes that cycle rock.
Do:
Use appropriate instruments
and tools to identify
sedimentary rocks; limestone,
shale and sandstone.
Model the formation of
sandstone, shale and
limestone. Infer the
environmental conditions in
which limestone, sandstone
and shale formed.
Explain how the processes of
weathering, erosion and
deposition contribute to
sedimentary rock formation.
Use appropriate tools to
identify metamorphic and
igneous rocks.
Compare the properties and
methods of formation of
sedimentary, metamorphic and
igneous rocks.
Describe how processes on
Earth cause rocks to cycle.
Unit Name: Earth’s History
Topic/Sub-Evidence for Earth’s History
Which Standards are students learning in this unit?
7.2.A. The Earth’s present day species evolved from earlier, distinctly different species. Many thousands
of layers of sedimentary rock provide evidence for the long history of the Earth and for the long history of
changing life forms whose remains are found in the rocks. More recently deposited rock layers are more
likely to contain fossils resembling existing species. (Compact)
7.2.D. Extinction of a species occurs when the environment changes and the adaptive characteristics of a
species are insufficient to allow its survival. Most of the species that have lived on Earth no longer exist.
(Essential)
5.2.K. Past geological events and environments can be reconstructed by interpreting fossilized remains
and successive layering of sedimentary rocks.
Important
5.2.L. The fit of continental coastlines, the similarity of rock types and fossilized remains provide
evidence that today’s continents were once a single land mass. The continents moved to their current
positions on plates driven by energy from Earth’s interior.
Important
By the end of this unit, students will be able to…
Know:
Understand:
Vocabulary:
The Earth’s surface has changed
Differential erosion
over time. Evidence for this is
Rock sequences
found in fossils, matching rock
Rock correlation
types, and the fit of the
Law of Superposition
continental coastlines.
Fossils
Index fossils
Humans have only recently been
Plate Tectonics
present on Earth yet
Geologic time
understanding processes that
occur today allow scientists to
understand Earth’s history.
Do:
Compare Earth’s history to a
timeline. Explain the importance
of fossil evidence in
understanding Earth’s history and
infer why less in known about
Earth’s past when organisms
with hard parts did not exist.
Infer how the environment on
Earth changed over time based
on evidence from sequential,
undisturbed rock layers.
Given the fit of coastlines,
matching index fossil evidence
form one continent to another,
and matching rock types from
one continent to another, infer
that the continents must have
been joined at one time and have
moved apart to their present
positions.