Download Project Topics - Yonkers Public Schools

Name:______________________________________
Spring Break Project
[email protected]
The wonders of our Earth extend beyond the confines of the rocky sediments that hold the story of our past.
Scientists, with their continued determination and grit, have been able to peer into the mysterious world of
Earth’s long and fantastic past. And now guess what… you will be doing the same.
Our Earth has a long history that reaches from this great planet to the far beyond of our solar system and
even the universe. It is your job to tell the story of some aspect of our Earth. The following is a list of project
topics. Your project will be to create a visual and technological way of explaining one of these topics. As you
are completing your project make sure that you do not include too many words on one slide, make sure to
include pictures, but of course don’t put just a bunch of pictures - ideally you want a good balance of
words and visuals for your project. This may be done as one of the following:
Powerpoint format (or a comparable format that allows you to have visuals AND your voice), but it
must be narrated with your voice in the powerpoint file (your grade will be affected if you do not
include your voice within the presentation)
• A movie/video (using Windows movie maker or iMovie – or some equivalent program)
• An animated story telling done on the computer
Make sure you put your name and topic on the file name – for example: Rowitt-Universe and Exoplanets
•
Here are those topics:
1. Absolute and Relative age
a. How do we determine the age of the Earth?
b. What is Absolute age?
c. ESRT Page 1 “Radioactive Decay Data” – explain this chart.
i. Which elements are unstable?
ii. Which elements are stable?
iii. What is half-life?
d. How is radioactive decay (and the half-life of elements) used to help determine absolute age?
e. What is Relative age?
i. Make sure to give an example of what relative age means – show a cross-section of a
rock outcrop and explain the relative age using the principles of stratigraphy.
f. Principles of Stratigraphy
i. What are these and how do they apply to the example you explain?
g. What are Index Fossils?
h. Pages 347-351 (Dating with Radioactive Decay)
i. Pages 336-341 (Discovering Earth’s History – Relative Age)
2. Geologic Time Scale
a. Page 353-355
b. ESRT Page 8 and 9
i. Please know that if you stick with explaining the entirety of these pages to fulfill the
requirements of this assignment.
c. How old is the Earth?
d. When is the earliest evidence for oxygen breathing organisms?
e. When did Pangea begin to break apart?
f. How many major orogenic (mountain building) events were there?
g. What are Index Fossils
i. How do they help us determine how long ago things happened?
h. **ESRT Pages 8 and 9 have a ton of information packed into them. So, be sure to clarify HOW
TO read and understand these pages.
i. Be sure to explain the following terms and how they relate to one another:
1. Eon
2. Era
3. Period
4. Epoch
i. **Watching the videos I have posted on the class website in the Earth History folder will be very
helpful to help understand ESRT pages 8 and 9.**
3. Plate Tectonics and how Earth’s crust gets deformed
a. What are the plates on Earth?
b. What is seafloor spreading?
i. What is the evidence that supports seafloor spreading?
c. What are plate boundaries?
i. Make sure to list all the plate boundaries specifically (page 5 of the ESRT can be very
helpful in your explaining of this part of the topic).
ii. What features do you find at each of the boundaries (please make sure to mention the
features at the variety of convergent, divergent and transform boundaries)?
1. Continental-Continental
2. Ocean-Continental
3. Ocean-Ocean
d. What is a fault?
i. What are the different types of faults and please make sure to define them (pictures will
be very helpful with this).
a. Normal
b. Reverse
c. Strike-Slip
e. What are folds?
i. What are the parts of a fold?
1. What is an anticline?
2. What is a syncline?
f. What is the cause of the motion of Earth’s crust?
g. All of Chapter 11 from your textbook (pages 308-327) should be helpful
h. Page 254-260
i. Page 261-268
j. Page 270-271
4. Minerals
a. What are the characteristics of Minerals?
b. How do we identify minerals?
i. Using the properties is a big hint (please explain what each property is and give examples
for each to help identify a mineral).
1. Color
2. Streak
3. Luster
4. Hardness
5. Cleavage versus Fracture
c. ESRT page 16 (This page is very important to help explain minerals, their hardness, their
chemical composition and their uses.)
i. Explaining how to use this chart properly would certainly help your grade too (again
there is a lot to this chart, but with the right explanation it is easy to follow and
understand).
5. Rock Cycle
a. What are each of the 3 rock types?
b. How do they form?
c. What are rocks made of?
d. Explain the rock cycle chart in your ESRT page 6.
i. What are the rock types listed in the chart?
ii. Explain each process listed in the rock cycle chart.
e. You will also need to explain how to read the igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic charts in
your page 6 and 7 ESRT.
f. Please make sure to use pictures of real rocks so that we can better understand the reality of the
rock cycle.
g. ESRT page 6 and 7 charts should also be explained in this project.
i. Since Sedimentary, Metamorphic and Igneous rocks will be introduced during the rock
cycle explanation – each of their charts should also be explained.
6. Earth’s Interior (seismic data and asteroids)
a. What are the layers of Earth?
b. Page 10 of the ESRT is very helpful to help explain the temperatures and pressures at the
different layers (please make sure to explain the chart – don’t just show it!!).
c. The density of each of the layers is important to mention.
d. Why does the Earth have a magnetic field?
e. How do we know about the interior of the Earth?
i. I gave a couple of hints in the title of this project topic.
f. Why are there different layers in our Earth?
g. Why is the inside of our Earth so hot?
h. Page 280-285
i. Page 222-227
j. Page 233-237
7. Earthquakes
a. What is an Earthquake?
b. What types of waves does an Earthquake give off? (Make sure to explain the following seismic
waves in detail)…
i. What are P-waves? How do they move?
ii. What are S-waves? How do they move?
iii. What is different about these types of waves?
c. Where do they happen?
i. What is the focus of an Earthquake?
ii. What is the epicenter?
d. How do you find the epicenter of an Earthquake (This is something that will be on the regents so a step by step, visual how-to explanation would be a great idea).
e. How do you read the ESRT page 11 to help locate the epicenter of an Earthquake?
f. Pages 218-221 (What is an Earthquake?)
g. Pages 222-227 (Measuring Earthquakes)
h. Pages 228-232 (Earthquake Hazards)
8. Motions of our Solar system
a. What is an ellipse?
i. What does this shape have to do with the orbits of our planets?
b. ESRT page 15 (bottom)
i. Explain this chart completely…
1. What is the period of revolution for each celestial object listed (make sure you
define what period of revolution means)?
2. What is the period of rotation for each object listed (make sure you define what
period of rotation means)?
3. Which planet has a shorter revolution compared to its rotation (essentially this
planet’s day is longer than its year)?
4. What is the eccentricity for each celestial object?
a. What does eccentricity mean?
b. Explain how the eccentricity number represents how circular or elliptical
the orbit of a celestial object is.
5. Equatorial diameter (in km) of each celestial object listed?
6. Mass of each object listed?
7. Density?
a. Which planet would float on water (if there was a big enough pool to fit
the entire planet in, of course)?
8. Make sure to define the terms that are in this chart so that we can know more
about what the chart represents.
9. Which planets are the inner planets? What are some characteristics of these
planets?
10. Which planets are the outer planets? How are they different from the inner
planets?
11. What is it about the distance Earth is from the Sun that supports the existence of
life (it has to do with liquid water)?
ii. The entire chapter 23 of your textbook will be helpful with planet characteristics.
1. Pages 644-664
9. How do we know about the universe and exoplanets
a. The Electromagnetic Spectrum
i. What is it?
ii. ESRT page 14 (bottom)
1. What does this diagram show? (Explain that this chart represent light waves – yes
even though our eyes cannot “see” all these light waves, they are still light).
2. Define what a wavelength is.
3. Explain what happens to wavelength as you move from gamma waves to radio
waves.
4. Which visible light colors have the shortest wavelengths? Which have the
longest?
iii. How does the electromagnetic spectrum help us understand how the universe is
expanding?
iv. How do we know when objects are getting farther away from us?
v. How do we know when objects are getting closer to us?
b. What is the cosmic microwave background radiation? How does this radiation support the
occurrence of the big bang?
c. What is the Doppler effect? How does it help us determine objects toward us and/or away from
us?
d. What are exoplanets?
i. How many have we found?
ii. How have we found these exoplanets?
e. What is it about the distance Earth is from the Sun that supports the existence of life (it has to do
with liquid water)?
i. If our star were bigger would this habitable zone be a different distance? Give
examples!!
f. What is a galaxy? What kinds of galaxies are there?
g. Which galaxy is approaching our Milky Way galaxy? How do we know this?
h. Pages 674-677 (Study of Light)
i. Pages 714-721 (The Universe)
10. Stars and the HR diagram
a. ESRT Page 15 (top)
i. What characteristics of stars can be determined using the HR-diagram?
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
ii. Explain the HR diagram (Finding a color version of the HR diagram would be a good
idea in addition to showing the one from the ESRT).
Pages 700-706 (Properties of Stars)
Life of a star using the HR diagram
i. Early Stage
ii. Intermediate Stage
iii. Late Stage
Which stage do stars spend most of their “life?”
What determines which stars explode in a supernova? What can happen after the supernova?
What happens to stars that a relatively small during their Main Sequence stay? What do they
become in their intermediate stage? Late Stage?
Pages 707-714
You will receive an individual grade and a group grade for this project.