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Earth’s Changing Surface, Unit 2 Test Study Guide
Test information:
 The unit test will be given during finals on Thursday at 10:30 am in the Coliseum.
 There will be a mixture of multiple choice and essay questions.
 The unit test will count for 25% of your unit grade.
Study Guide: To do well on the test, you must be able to answer the following questions:
Standard 1, MS-ESS3-b: Soil Formation
I will construct explanations for the formation of soil types and other natural resources that result from the
weathering and/or deposition of rocks.
Unit 1, Lesson 5
1. Define soil.
2. Explain how soil forms.
3. Identify the factors that affect soil development, including living things. Explain how these factors affect the
development of soil.
4. Define humus. Identify where it is found.
5. Explain the difference between a soil horizon and soil profile.
6. Describe the physical characteristics of each soil horizon.
5. Explain how the soil changes as you travel down a soil profile.
Standard 2, MS-ESS2-g: Minerals and Rocks
I will collect data and generate evidence to answer scientific questions about the chemical and physical processes
that form rocks and minerals and cycle Earth’s materials.
Unit 3, Lesson 1: Minerals
1. Define mineral, matter, elements, and compounds.
2. List the characteristics that ALL minerals share.
3. Summarize the 3 ways in which mineral crystallization occurs. Give an example of each.
4. Explain the two ways that mineral crystals form from solutions.
5. Identify 7 (streak, luster, etc.) physical properties that are used to identify minerals. Explain how each property can
be used to identify a mystery mineral.
Unit 3, Lesson 2: Rock Cycle
1. Define weathering, erosion, and deposition.
2. Describe what a rock is.
3. Describe 5 processes that change rock.
4. Describe how igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks are formed.
5. Describe how rock changes as it goes through the rock cycle.
Unit 3, Lesson 3: Three Classes of Rocks
1. Describe the components of rock.
2. Describe two properties that are used to classify rock.
3. Identify the 3 major classes of rock.
4. Describe the process by which igneous rocks form.
5. Explain how intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks form.
6. Explain how to classify igneous rocks.
7. Describe the process by which sedimentary rock forms.
8. Identify the 3 major types of sedimentary rock and explain how they form.
9. Classify unknown sedimentary rocks as clastic, organic, or chemical.
9. Describe the process by which metamorphic rock forms.
10. Describe the two types of metamorphic rock and how they are classified.
Standard 3 and 4, MS-ESS2-a, e: Theory of Plate Tectonics
I will use plate tectonic models to support the explanation that, due to convection, matter cycles between Earth’s
surface and the deep mantle. I will develop and use models of past plate motions to support explanations of
existing patterns in the fossil record, rock record, continental shapes, and seafloor structures.
Unit 4, Lesson 1: Earth’s Layers
1. Describe the physical and compositional layers of Earth.
2. Define lithosphere, asthenosphere, mesosphere and know characteristics of each one.
3. Compare the upper and lower mantle.
4. Compare the inner and outer core.
Unit 4, Lesson 2: Plate Tectonics
5. Explain how convection in the mantle causes sea-floor spreading. Use the following words in your explanation:
lithosphere, mid-ocean ridge, magma, lava, trench, subduction, conveyor belt.
6. Identify the location(s) on the sea-floor where the sea-floor is the youngest and the oldest, as well as the coolest and
hottest. WHY is this the case?
7. Explain why the Earth isn’t growing as a result of sea-floor spreading.
8. Describe how convection, ridge push, and slab pull work together to move tectonic plates.
9. Describe the evidence that Alfred Wegener presented to the scientific community to support the theory of Continental
Drift. Why was the theory not accepted at first?
10. What is the theory of plate tectonics?
Unit 4, Lesson 3: Mountain Building
11. Describe the 3 types of plate boundaries.
12. Relate the types of stress, folding, and faulting to the types of plate boundaries that exist.
13. Describe the 3 types of mountains and how they form.
13. Identify how a mountain forms, based on its location on a tectonic plate and the boundaries nearby.
14. Define uplift, subsidence, and rift zone. Draw a picture of each and explain what happens to rock at each place.