Download Unit Organizer: “Systems and Cycles”

Unit Organizer: “Systems and Cycles ”
(Approximate Time: )
Block – 1.5 weeks
Trad – 3 weeks
Prentice Hall - Earth Science
OVERVIEW:
STANDARDS ADDRESSED IN THIS UNIT
Focus Standards:
SES1. Students will investigate the composition
and formation of Earth systems, including
the Earth’s relationship to the solar system.
e. Identify transformations and major
reservoirs that make up the rock cycle,
hydrologic cycle, carbon cycle, and
other important geochemical cycles.
Support Standards:
SES5.
Students will explain how life on Earth
responds to and shapes Earth systems.
c. Explain how geological and ecological
processes interact through time to
cycle matter and energy, and how
human activity alters the rates of these
processes (e.g., fossil fuel formation
and combustion).
Enduring Understanding / topic
Text/Lab/Resources
Systems and spheres
 Atmosphere (air, weather,
climate)
 Hydrosphere (water, oceans,
rivers)
 Cryosphere (ice, glaciers, ice
ages)
 Geosphere (the solid earth, plate
tectonics, volcanoes,
earthquakes)
 Biosphere (life, including
humanity, fossils, and evolution)
 Exosphere (our solar system and
space)
Cycles - The constancy of change
 Rock cycle
 Hydrologic cycle (water cycle)
 Plate tectonic cycle
 Climatic cycles
 Geochemical cycles (carbon
cycle, phosphate cycle, nitrate
cycle, sulfur cycle)
A Systems Perspective
Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Geosphere,
Biosphere
Hydrologic Cycle and the Roles of
Water
Water Cycle Activity
Earth Observation Days - Introduction to
Earth Systems activity
Introduction to the Earth Assignment
Discover Our Earth
Earth's Cycles
Earth Systems in a Bottle - NSTA
Unit Organizer: Earth Interior
(Approximate Time: )
Block – 2 weeks
Traditional - 4 weeks
OVERVIEW:
STANDARDS ADDRESSED IN THIS UNIT
Focus Standards:
SES1. Students will investigate the
composition and formation of Earth systems,
including the Earth’s relationship to the solar
system.
a. Describe the early evolution of the Earth and
solar system, including the formation of Earth’s
solid layers (core, mantle, crust), the distribution of
major elements, the origin of internal heat sources,
and the mechanism by which heat transfer drives
plate tectonics.
b. Explain how the composition of the Earth’s crust,
mantle and core is determined and compare it to
that of other solar system objects.
e. Identify the transformations and major reservoirs
that make up the rock cycle.
Support Standards:
SES6.
Students will explain how life on
Earth responds to and shapes Earth
systems.
d. Explain how geological and
ecological processes interact through
time to cycle matter and energy, and
how human activity alters the rates of
these processes (e.g., fossil fuel
formation and combustion).
Earth Formation
Students will understand that:
1. The sun, the earth, and the rest of the solar
system formed from a nebular cloud of dust
and gas 4.6 billion years ago.
2. The earth and other solar system objects
are believed to have melted early in their
history, allowing the layering of lighter over
heavier material that accounts for today's
crust, mantle and core.
3. The density of solar system objects,
including Earth, can be determined based
on their gravitational pull on other objects. 
Density helps scientists determine that the inner
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planets have a rocky exterior and a metallic
core, whereas the outer planets consist mostly
of light elements in gaseous and liquid states. 
Systems and spheres
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 Geosphere (the solid earth, plate
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tectonics, volcanoes, earthquakes)
Cycles - The constancy of change
 Rock cycle
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Chapter 1.1 & 1.2 – View of the Earth,
Formation of the Earth
Earth’s Major Spheres
Chapter 8.4 – Earth’s Layered
Structure
Earth as A System
People and the Environment
Chapter 3.1 – The Rock Cycle
3.2 – Igneous Rocks
Chapter 2 – Minerals
Windows to the Universe Enter and go to the Earth link.
USGA - Geology Resources
for Southeastern States
Earth Systems from
NASA's JPL
NASA's Earth Observatory
The Interior of the Earth
 The history of the
universe
 Geology Links
 Birth of A solar System
 Astrogeology
 mineral quiz
 mineral id test
 The rock doctor - minerals
 Mineral Matters
Unit Organizer: “Plate Tectonic Settings”
(Approximate Time: )
Block – 3 weeks
Traditional – 6 weeks
OVERVIEW:
STANDARDS ADDRESSED IN THIS UNIT
Focus Standards:
SES2. Students will understand how plate
tectonics creates certain geologic features,
materials, and hazards.
a. Relate certain geologic hazards to specific
plate tectonic settings.
b. Associate specific plate tectonic settings
with the production of particular groups of igneous
and metamorphic rocks and mineral resources.
Igenous Rocks SES2.
Students will understand how plate
tectonics creates certain geologic
features, materials, and hazards.
a. Distinguish among types of plate
tectonic settings produced by plates
diverging, converging, and sliding
past each other.
b. Relate modern and ancient geologic
features to each kind of plate tectonic
setting.
c. Relate certain geologic hazards to
specific plate tectonic settings.
d. Associate specific plate tectonic
settings with the production of
particular groups of igneous and
metamorphic rocks and mineral
resources.
SES1. c. Describe how the decay of radioactive
isotopes is used to determine the age
of rocks, Earth, and solar system.
1.
2.
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5.
The outward transfer of earth's
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internal heat drives convection circulation
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in the mantle that propels the plates
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comprising earth's surface across the
face of the globe.
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Volcanism as mechanism
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By studying earthquake waves that 
pass through the Earth, scientists know 
the exact thickness of the Earth's crust,
mantle, and outer and inner core, and the
fact that the outer core is the only liquid
layer.
Water vapor and other gases from
volcanoes early in Earth's history led to
the formation of the oceans and initial
atmosphere.
Two primary sources of Earth's
internal energy are the decay of
radioactive isotopes and initially, the
gravitational energy from the earth's
formation.
Chapter 9 – Plate Tectonics
Chapter 8.1,8.2,8.3 – Earthquakes
Chapter 10 – Volcanoes & Other Igneous
Processes
Chapter 3.2 Igneous Rocks
Chapter 11 – Mountain Building
Chapter 3.4 – Metamorphic Rocks
Stone Mountain
Smithsonian Volcano program
Identifying igneous rocks
Igeneous rocks from the Earth
Science Grid
Igeneous Rock lab
Rock Cycle
Igneous Rocks
Metamorphic Rocks
Discovering Plate Boundaries
Seisvole and Seismic Waves
programs - Alan L. Jones Plate
Puzzle
What is an Earthquake-- Revealing A
Fault Plane with Hypocenters
A Model of Sea-Floor Spreading
Teacher's Guide
Real Evidence of a Subducting Plate
The Plate Tectonic Story- A Scientific
Jigsaw
Metamorphic rocks
GPC Metamorphic Rock Pictures
USGS Metamorphic rocks
Animation - How metamorphic rocks
are formed
Metamorphic rocks
Metamorphic rock tour
RockDoctor presents metamorphic
rocks
Simulated Metamorphic Process Squeeze Granola Bar Create grain
deformation and preferred
orientation by deforming a granola
bar using C-clamps and plywood.
Metamorphic Rock IdentificationWhat Lies Beneath- Online key to
identify metamorphic rocks.
Unit Organizer: “Landforms and Landscapes”
(Approximate Time: )
Block – 2.5 week
Traditional – 5 weeks
OVERVIEW:
STANDARDS ADDRESSED IN THIS UNIT
Focus Standards:
SES3.
Students will explore the actions of
water, wind, ice, and gravity that create
landforms and systems of landforms
(landscapes).
a. Describe how surface water and
groundwater act as the major agents
of physical and chemical weathering.
b. Explain how soil results from
weathering and biological processes
acting on parent rock.
c. Describe the processes and hazards
associated with both sudden and
gradual mass wasting.
d. Relate the past and present actions
of ice, wind, and water to landform
distribution and landscape evolution.
e. Explain the processes that transport
Students will understand that:
1. Water, ice, air, and biological activity at
the Earth’s surface cause rock to
weather, partially dissolving it and
breaking it down into smaller particles.
2. Decomposers add the remains of
organisms to the rock particles, making
the soil necessary for plants to grow.
3. Weathered earth materials move down
slope gradually or catastrophically under
the influence of gravity.
4. Wind, water, and ice erode weathered
material and deposit it as sediment.
Sediment is usually picked up,
transported down-current, and deposited
many times before it is finally buried in a
sedimentary basin.
5. After sediment is buried, the weight of
Chapter 5: Weathering, Soil, and Mass
Movements
Chapter 6: Running Water & Groundwater
Chapter 3.3 – Sedimentary Rocks
Chapter 7: Glaciers, Deserts & Wind
and deposit material in terrestrial and
marine sedimentary basins, which
result, over time, in sedimentary rock.
6.
overlying material and the circulation of
fluids cause the sediment to be
compacted and cemented into rock.
The landforms that make up a landscape
can be shaped by both erosion and
deposition, and depend on uplift or
subsidence, rock type, temperature
variations, and the relative importance of
different agents of weathering, erosion,
and deposition.
2nd 9 weeks on Block & 2nd Semester Traditional
Unit Organizer: “Weather and Climate”
(Approximate Time: )
OVERVIEW:
STANDARDS ADDRESSED IN THIS UNIT
Focus Standards:
SES1: d. Describe how the Earth acquired its initial
oceans and atmosphere.
SES 5. Students will investigate the interaction of
insulation and Earth systems to produce weather
and climate.
a. Explain how latitudinal variations
in solar heating create
atmospheric and ocean currents
that redistribute heat globally.
b. Explain the relationship between
air masses and the surfaces over
which they form.
c. Relate weather patterns to
interactions among ocean
currents, air masses, and
topography.
d. Describe how temperature and
precipitation produce the pattern
of climate regions (classes) on
Earth.
e. Describe the hazards associated
with extreme weather events and
climate change (e.g., hurricanes,
tornadoes, El Niño/La Niña, global
warming).
f. Relate changes in global climate
to variation in Earth/Sun
relationships and to natural and
anthropogenic modification of
atmospheric composition.
Block – 3 Weeks
Traditional – 6 weeks
Students will understand that:
1. Solar radiation heats the landmasses,
oceans, and air.
2. The curvature of the Earth causes solar
radiation to strike locations on the Earth
at different angles. At high latitudes, the
radiation passes through more of the
atmosphere, causing less solar heating
than at latitudes nearer the equator.
3. Heating of earth's surface and
atmosphere by the sun drives convection
within the atmosphere and oceans,
producing winds and ocean currents.
4. Weather is the short term condition
involving the transfer of energy in and
out of the atmosphere.
5. Climate is the long term condition
involving the transfer of energy in and
out of the atmosphere.
6. Global climate is determined by energy
transfer from the sun at and near the
earth's surface. This energy transfer is
influenced by dynamic processes such
as cloud cover and the earth's rotation,
and static conditions such as the position
of mountain ranges and oceans.
7. The climate of the earth has varied over
time because of variations in the tilt of
the earth, radiation output of the sun,
composition of the atmosphere,
arrangement of continents, and
reflectivity of the earth's surface.
8. Climate change and extreme weather
events can exert a major influence on
Chapter 17: The Atmosphere
Chapter 18.1 & 18.2 – Moisture, Clouds
Chapter 19 – Air Pressure and Wind
Chapter 20 – Weather Patterns
Chapter 21 – Climate
Basic introduction to weather
(including air masses)
Earth's atmosphere
Atmosphere structure and ozone
Layers of the atmosphere
Satellite images of environmental
change
The Great Ice Age
Animation of Earth's spheresEarth
Weathering the Odds- Learning
About Weather Forecasting in the
Science Classroom
Essentials of Weather
Feeding Frenzy- Seasonal Upwelling
Dr. Art's GREENHOUSE EFFECT
The effect of acid rain on monuments
in Washington, DC
Cycles of the Earth and atmosphere
Georgia Automated Environmental
Monitoring Network
Intellicast weather - see forcast and
radar for your area
Weather Channel
Weatherbug
American Meteorological Society
DataStreme
Online Meteorology Guide
Air masses and fronts
the health and economic well-being of
human beings.
Systems and spheres
 Atmosphere (air, weather, climate)
 Hydrosphere (water, oceans, rivers)
Cycles
 Hydrologic cycle (water cycle)
 Climatic cycles
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Unit Organizer: “Reconstructing Earth’s Past
through the History of Life”
(Approximate Time: )
OVERVIEW:
Block 3 Weeks
Traditional 6 Weeks
Introduction to the Atmosphere
Storm Chasing
Windows to the Universe Atmosphere questions
global warming
Climate Change
Shrinking Artic Sea
Global Warming information
Kids Climate Change
Global Warming Debates
Tornados
Weather Channel tornados
Thunderstorms
Tornado Chaser
CNN - tornado animation
tornados
National Weather Prediction
Almanac
Forcasting Weather
STANDARDS ADDRESSED IN THIS UNIT
Focus Standards:
SES4.
Students will understand how rock
relationships and fossils are used to
reconstruct the Earth’s past.
d. Describe and apply principles of
relative age (superposition, original
horizontality, cross-cutting relations,
and original lateral continuity) and
describe how unconformities form.
e. Interpret the geologic history of a
succession of rocks and
unconformities.
f. Apply the principle of
uniformitarianism to relate
sedimentary rock associations and
their fossils to the environments in
which the rocks were deposited.
g. Explain how sedimentary rock units
are correlated within and across
regions by a variety of methods (e.g.,
geologic map relationships, the
principle of fossil succession,
radiometric dating, and
paleomagnetism).
h. Use geologic maps and stratigraphic
relationships to interpret major events
in Earth history (e.g., mass extinction,
major climatic change, tectonic
events).
SES1. c. Describe how the decay of radioactive
isotopes is used to determine the age
of rocks, Earth, and solar system.
SES6. d Describe how fossils provide a record of
shared ancestry, evolution, and extinction that is
best explained by the mechanism of natural
selection.
SES6.e - Identify the evolutionary innovations that
most profoundly shaped Earth systems:
1. The sequence of rock layers at a
given location provides a record of
changing environmental conditions
through incomplete intervals of
geologic time.
2. Fossils are used to correlate the
sequences of rocks at various
locations, in order to build up a
more complete picture of the past.
3. The known decay rates of
radioactive isotopes present in
rocks are used to measure the time
since the rock was formed.
4. Geologic maps and cross sections
are tools geologists use to establish
spatial relationships between rock 
sequences.
Chapter 12 – Geologic Time
Chapter 13 – Earth’s History
Chapter 3.3 Sedimentary Rocks & fossils
Catastrophic Events in the History of Life: Toward a
New Understanding of Mass Extinctions in the Fossil
Record - Part II
Cleaning Water the Way Nature Does
Combined Sewage outflows
Effects of Acid Rain on Forests
Exploring the Ozone Hole: Mechanisms of
Stratospheric Denitrificaiton
Extinction-Prone Groups of Species
Determining Fossil Ages - Lesson
1
Determining Fossil Ages - Worksheet
Time Scaling a Football field - Ky Survey
Model a timeline on a football field
using students to mark events.
Time Scaling - paper strip - nap.edu
Students develop their own time lines in
a 5e’s activity using paper strips.
Getting into the fossil record
Stories from the fossil record paleoecology, geologic time, etc.
Univ. of Calif. Berkeley Paleontology
Museum
Understanding evolution
Explorations through time
Learning from the fossil record
Life has a history
Our changing continent - USGS
photosynthetic prokaryotes and the atmosphere;
multicellular animals and marine environments;
land plants and terrestrial environments.
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Fossil Internet Lab
Absolute dating
Into the Fossil Record
Evolution of Life
CT scanning of fossils
Fossil Succession
Geomagnetism
Shifting of Earth's Magnetic Field
Paleotology Portal
Radiometric Dating
Relative dating
GA Fossil sites
Determining the Age of fossils
Palaeos - the trace of life
History of Life through time
Mystery Fossils
Earth Systems Science - Geologic
Time scale
Virtual Dating Lab
Fossil Succession
Earth Animations
Telling Time Using Rocks
Paleomagnetism
Prentice Hall Geologic Time
Tours of National Parks
The dating Game
Explorations through Time
Geology of Grand Canyon
The Grand Staircase
The Grand Staircase Images
Virtual and Online Field Trip Guides
Bryce Canyon
Zion National Park
Unit Organizer: “Distribution of Life and Earth’s
Citizenship”
OVERVIEW:
STANDARDS ADDRESSED IN THIS UNIT
Focus Standards:
SES6: Students will explain how life on Earth
responds to and shapes Earth systems.
a. Relate the nature and distribution
of life on Earth, including humans,
to the chemistry and availability of
water.
b. Relate the distribution of biomes
(terrestrial, freshwater, and marine)
to climate regions through time.
c. Explain how geological and
ecological processes interact
through time to cycle matter and
energy, and how human activity
alters the rates of these processes
(e.g., fossil fuel formation and
combustion).
Supporting Standards:
SES1.
SES2.
Students will investigate the composition
and formation of Earth systems,
including the Earth’s relationship to the
solar system.
b. Identify the transformations and major
reservoirs that make up the rock
cycle, hydrologic cycle, carbon cycle,
and other important geochemical
cycles.
Students will understand how plate
tectonics creates certain geologic
features, materials, and hazards.
e. Relate certain geologic hazards to
specific plate tectonic settings.
f. Associate specific plate tectonic
Block 3 weeks
Traditional 6 weeks
Students will understand that:
1. Humans are a part of the Earth system.
We depend on Earth systems and Earth's
resources.
2. Increasingly, humans modify Earth
systems as a result of population growth,
technology, and consumption.
3. Humans affect Earth systems through
activities such as groundwater
contamination and depletion, construction
of structures along rivers and coasts, and
burning of energy resources causing
atmospheric and climatic changes leading
to sea level rise.
4. Humans are affected in areas with
topography by mass wasting, and, in
geologically active areas, by earthquakes
and volcanic eruptions.
5. Climate changes and extreme weather
events can exert a major influence on the
health and economic well-being of people.
Chapter 11A – Georgia Earth Systems
Terrestrial and Aquatic Biomes
Chapter 4 – Earth’s Resources
Catastrophic Events – National Science
Resources Center
Global Climate Change
History of Water
Hydrologic Cycle
Ion Exchange
Life from Space: An Emerging Paradigm
Neighborhoods
Our Cancerous Environment
Project Gigalopolis
Project Gigalopolis
The Physical Environment
World Biomes
North American Biomes
Biomes
NASA - Mission: Biomes
Introduction to Biomes
Animated Map of Vegetation
Change, past 21,000 years
(Viewer)
Earth Systems History (Brown
University)
SES3.
SES5.
settings with the production of
particular groups of igneous and
metamorphic rocks and mineral
resources.
Students will explore the actions of
water, wind, ice, and gravity that create
landforms and systems of landforms
(landscapes).
f. Explain how soil results from
weathering and biological processes
acting on parent rock.
g. Describe the processes and hazards
associated with both sudden and
gradual mass wasting.
Students will investigate the interaction
of insulation and Earth systems to
produce weather and climate.
g. Describe the hazards associated with
extreme weather events and climate
change (e.g., hurricanes, tornadoes,
El Niño/La Niña, global warming).
h. Relate changes in global climate to
variation in Earth/Sun relationships
and to natural and anthropogenic
modification of atmospheric
composition.
Quaternary Biome maps (NOAA)
Diversity of Life in the Paleozoic
Early Paleozoic Events 1
Global Biosphere Map (NASA)
Cenozoic Events (Levin Ch. 15)