Download Unit Title: Physical Systems and Forces of Change

Campus: High School
Author(s): Wagner, Segleski
Date Created / Revised: 7-29-2015
Six Weeks Period: 1st 6 Weeks
Grade Level & Course: 9th Grade Pre AP World Geography
Timeline: 7 Days
Unit Title: Physical Systems and Forces of Change
Stated Objectives:
TEK # and SE
Lesson # Unit
1 Lesson 2
WG.3 Geography. The student understands how physical processes shape patterns in the
physical environment. The student is expected to:
WG.3A Explain weather conditions and climate in relation to annual changes in Earth-Sun
relationships.
WG.3B Describe the physical processes that affect the environments of regions, including
weather, tectonic forces, erosion, and soil-building processes.
WG.3C Examine the physical processes that affect the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere,
and biosphere.
WG.4 Geography. The student understands the patterns and characteristics of major
landforms, climates, and ecosystems of Earth and the interrelated processes that produce them.
The student is expected to:
WG.4A Explain how elevation, latitude, wind systems, ocean currents, position on a continent,
and mountain barriers influence temperature, precipitation, and distribution of climate regions.
WG.4B Describe different landforms and the physical processes that cause their development.
WG.4C Explain the influence of climate on the distribution of biomes in different regions.
WG.22 Social studies skills. The student communicates in written, oral, and visual forms. The
student is expected to:
WG.22A Design and draw appropriate graphics such as maps, diagrams, tables, and graphs to
communicate geographic features, distributions, and relationships.
WG.22B Generate summaries, generalizations, and thesis statements supported by evidence.
WG.22C Use geographic terminology correctly. Eligible for Dual-coding on STAAR
See Instructional Focus Document (IFD) for TEK Specificity
Key Understandings
Misconceptions
Physical forces cause change in the Earth’s landscape over time, which alter the human
landscape and force adaptations and modifications to the environment.
An underdeveloped concept is the concept of geography itself. Many students believe that
geography is only about maps and globes. They do not understand how to use the maps
and globes to identify patterns and analyze relationships.
Key Vocabulary
ecosystem
solstice
equinox
plate tectonics
rotation
revolution
tilt
indirect rays
direct rays
Suggested Day
5E Model
Instructional Procedures
(Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend/Elaborate, Evaluate)
Day 1
Engage
Write the following question on the board for students to read as they
enter the classroom:
What is the difference between weather and climate? Is there a
difference or do these two words mean the same thing?
With a partner, students discuss possible responses to the question.
Materials, Resources,
Notes
Access student prior
knowledge and experience
and help them differentiate
between climate and
weather so that they may
understand the connection
between climate and
weather to the Earth-Sun
Relationships.
Facilitate a discussion based on student responses and script them
on the board. To guide the discussion, ask questions such as:
What is today’s temperature?
Is temperature considered climate or weather? Why?
There are regions in Texas that rarely receive any rainfall. Is this
statement relevant to climate or weather? Why?
Does the temperature in our city remain constant throughout the
year? Why? Why not?
Continue the discussion about weather and climate so that students
arrive at the conclusion that regions/places experience seasons and
seasons exist due to the Earth-Sun Relationships.
Provide students with the definition of weather and climate:
Weather is the condition of the atmosphere in one place during a
limited period of time.
Climate is the term for weather patterns that an area experiences
over a long period of time.
Explain that a place’s weather and climate are affected by the
relationship of the Earth to the Sun in two ways: The tilt of the Earth
in relation to the Sun, and where the Earth is at any given time in its
revolution around the Sun.
Students develop an
understanding of and
If desired, show a short video clip about Earth-Sun relationships.
mental image of academic
vocabulary.
Say:
We are going to explore in more detail how these physical
systems, such as climate and weather, affect patterns in the
physical environment.
Teacher
Resource: PowerPoint:
Earth-Sun Relationship
Earth- Sun Relationships
Distribute the Handout: Define and Sketch
Handout: Define and
Sketch (1 per student)
Introduce today’s topic: How the Sun affects the Earth.
Use the Teacher Resource: PowerPoint: Earth-Sun Relationship, to
help explain how the Sun affects the Earth.
As they watch the PowerPoint, students fill in their vocabulary
organizer (Handout:Define and Sketch) by defining terms and
creating a sketch that describes a location for each word.
Teacher Resource: PowerPoint: Earth-Sun Relationships.
Students create an Exit Ticket for the day by answering a question
such as:
Using academic vocabulary, explain the factors that affect
climate and how those factors affect climate. Give an
example. (Latitude. The amount of sun a place receives is based
on its location on the globe. Revolution and tilt of the earth are
also very important.)
Day 2
Explore/ Explain
Distribute maps (with latitude marked) or globes to students or
student groups.
Handout: Define and
Sketch from Day 1
Using the Teacher Resource: PowerPoint: Climate and Climate
Regions, review of learning from the previous day (slides 1-6) as
students add or adjust information on their Define and Sketch graphic
organizer from Day 1.
Map, world map with
latitude marked, or globe
Ask:
Map, world vegetation map
What affects climate? Today’s lesson focuses on Climate and
Climate regions.
Students draw a bubble map (graphic organizer) with the center
Map, world climate map
Pictures of each
climate/climate zone
Attachments:
labeled with “What affects climate?”
Show slide #8. Students respond to the question (What affects
climate?) by writing appropriate terms on the graphic organizer.
(latitude, landforms, elevation, proximity to large bodies of water,
wind and currents.)
Show slides #9 and #10 to help explain low-latitude, mid-latitude, and
high-latitude climate zones.
On their maps or globes, students find and identify low-latitude, midlatitude, and high-latitude climate zones.
Group students into four.
Distribute the Handout: Climate Regions Graphic Organizer to each
group.
Student groups use the district adopted textbook, classroom
materials, and other resources (including appropriate internet sites)
to complete the graphic organizer. Make sure students shade the
region(s) of the globe that represents low, middle, and high latitude
regions (a visual connection to aid in memory).
Facilitate a class discussion where students share their learning,
draw inferences about regions and climate, and make connections to
their lives.
Students review their learning by answering the question, “What
affects climate?”and providing examples from at least three of the
climate zones and explaining how latitude affects climate.
Upon completion of the graphic organizer, show the rest of the
PowerPoint: Climate and Climate Regions. Address each climate
type, allowing students to correct their graphic organizers if they need
to. In order to help students visualize the climates, try to have
pictures of each climate type available for students to view.
Provide time for students to discuss the climate types and how they
affect human settlements.
Day 3
Explain
Pose questions such as the following for students to answer on an
Exit Card:
What type of lifestyle do you think people have in the desert? In
the rainforest? (Answers vary)
Teacher
Resource: PowerPoint:
Climate and Climate
Regions
Handout: Climate Regions
Graphic Organizer(1 per
group)
Purpose:
Students differentiate
between the major climate
regions of the world and
make connections to EarthSun Relationships.
Instructional Note:
Grasslands have different
names which denote
location – Prairie (North
America); Savanna
(Africa); Steppe (Central
Asia); Llanos (Central
South America), etc.
Savanna is tropical
grasslands (Low Latitude
climate zone) can also be
found in the subtropical
area (Middle Latitude
climate zones). Subtropical
means “under” or “just
outside of” so subtropical is
the mid-latitude area
immediately outside of the
tropics; subarctic is the
area in the mid-latitude
area immediately outside of
the arctic.
How might the people adapt to these climates? (Answers vary)
Attachments:
What affects climate?” Answers will vary. (Sample Answers: Tilt,
revolution (seasons), landforms (i.e. orographic effect), proximity
to large bodies of water (marine v. continental climate), water
currents (cold water = drier wind, less precipitation; warm water =
humid wind, more precipitation), etc.)
Show students two images from PowerPoint: Earth’s Spheres,
Landforms and Physical Processes (slides #2 and #3)
Ask questions such as:
Teacher Resource:
PowerPoint: Earth’s
Spheres, Landforms and
Physical Processes
Purpose:
Students see the relevance
between forces of change
and how they affect the
global community.
Where might this event have taken place?
What might have caused it?
What evidence leads you to make these deductions?
Facilitate a brief discussion about Japan’s Tsunami in 2011.
Day 4
Explore/ Explain
Distribute the Handout: Forces of Change (K-W-L-H Chart)
Students write what they know about the forces that are listed on the
chart. Students write what they would like to find out about the forces.
Handout: Forces of
Change (K-W-L-H Chart) (1
per student)
Create the Forces of Change (K-W-L-H Chart) on the board or
project it on the wall.
Students share their responses while the teacher scripts them on the
chart.
Ask questions such as:
Do you think that these forces effect human populations? Why or
why not?
This lesson will explore this idea further.
Continue to show the Teacher resource: PowerPoint: Earth’s
Spheres, Landforms and Physical Processes (slides #4 and #5).
Clarify student understanding by using words and questions such as:
Physical geography is really about how these four systems
interact. Which of these systems is related to what we’ve
Teacher Resource:
PowerPoint: Earth’s
Spheres, Landforms and
Physical Processes
Purpose:
Students sketch the Earth’s
spheres to develop and
internalize a mental image
of the spheres.
discovered about weather and climate?” Answer: Atmosphere.
Which of these systems is related to the Earth and its physical
processes?” Answer: Lithosphere and Biosphere. (Convection of
magma occurs in the Lithosphere. This action moves the plates.
Weathering and erosion are external processes which occur in
the Biosphere.)
Instructional Note:
The diagram will be used
during the next Explore
activity.
Students use their textbook to create a diagram of the Earth and
label and color: Inner Core, Outer Core, Mantle, Crust, lithosphere,
atmosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere. Students should illustrate
these terms using map pencils. Off to the side, students should
describe these terms. (Students should work on the diagram for
about 20 minutes. If incomplete, they could finish it as homework.)
The diagram will be used during the next Explore activity.
On an Exit Card, students provide evidence of their understanding by
answering questions such as:
How do you think all of these systems relate to forces of change?
How do humans adapt to these forces of change?
Day 5
Explore
Students prepare to use the diagram they drew in the Explore activity
above.
Introduce this activity by using words such as:
Next, we will primarily focus on the lithosphere and explore the
different internal and external forces that shape the surface of the
Earth.
Then, we will examine some of those shapes that occur and look
at how they are formed and how they affect the physical
geography of a place.
Review earlier learning about the inner core and its characteristics by
using words such as:
It is very hot and solid. The outer core is extremely hot molten
liquid, the mantle is a mix of liquid and solid, and the crust is the
thin top layer of the Earth’s surface.
Ask:
Does magma move? (Explain the convection process of moving
Materials
Diagram of the tectonic
plates
Attachments:
Teacher Resource:
PowerPoint: Earth’s
Spheres, Landforms and
Physical Processes
Purpose:
Students gain a deeper
understanding of the
Lithosphere and the effects
when the plates move.
magma.)
Ask questions such as:
What effect does the movement of magma have on the plates
that form the Earth’s crust? Answers may include the movement
of continents and the creation of landforms
Review information on Plate Tectonics using words such as:
This belief is known as the theory of continental drift.
Attachments:
In fact, the whole surface of the Earth is believed to be on
thirteen (or 14, depending on the classification system you use)
moving plates, that fit together to form the surface of the Earth
and are constantly shifting. This theory of continental drift is the
basis for how scientists and geologists explain things like how
mountains are formed, and this is the theory of plate tectonics.
Handout: Internal Forces
Plate Tectonics the
Creation of Landforms
What evidence do scientists have to support the plate
tectonics?Answers may include fossil evidence, shape of
continents, measurement of plate movement, rock layers,
etc. (Show a transparency or diagram of the plates if possible.)
Show slide #6 of the Teacher Resource: PowerPoint: Earth’s
Spheres, Landforms and Physical Processes and explain it using
words such as:
In viewing this image (Slide # 6): There are three basic kinds
of movement along plate boundaries.
1.) Some plates move toward one another; this is a converging
plate boundary. There are two types of converging plate
boundaries, one of which involves two of the same type of plate
composition (continental-continental or oceanic-oceanic). This
plate boundary causes the formation of folded mountains. The
second type of converging plates involves the movement of
continental and ocean plates toward each other. The heavier
oceanic plate moves beneath the lighter continental plate, thus
causing subduction to occur. At this plate boundary, volcanic
mountains and ocean trenches form. All converging plate
boundaries experience earthquakes and may experience
landslides and lahars.
- 2.) Plates can also move away from one another, thus forming a
divergent plate boundary. When this occurs, on land it’s called a
rift valley and in the ocean it’s called mid-oceanic ridge. Blockfaulted and volcanic mountains are formed along the rift.
Earthquakes are experienced along this plate boundary.
- 3.) Other plates move side by side, thus causing a transform
Handout: Internal Forces
Plate Tectonics the
Creation of Landforms KEY
Purpose:
Provide an opportunity for
students to clarify
information about Plate
Tectonics.
fault. Earthquakes are experienced with this type of fault.
With a partner, students review and explain what they have learned
by using Handout: Internal Forces: Plate Tectonics the Creation of
Landforms(Students fill in the appropriate information.)
Day 6
Explore
The emphasis for this explore piece is on external forces. Introduce
the topic by asking questions such as:
What kinds of resources may be formed by the moving of the
Earth’s plates? (Answers will vary. Encourage students to think of
effect of pressure on rock formation. This is a good way to link to
their science knowledge. Some resources may include: Coal,
Diamonds, Gold, Silver, Quartz, etc. Suggestion: Show students
a map of resources and physical features. Look for patterns for
resources. Many are located in mountainous areas.)
What happens after these landforms are created? Are there other
forces that change the ways they look?
Distribute the handout: External Forces: Shaping of the Earth’s
Surface. Explain erosion, weathering, and deposition. Be sure to
emphasize that these forces are at work on the surface and generally
cause gradual change (except during a flood or other natural hazard).
Attachments:
Handout: External Forces:
Shaping of the Earth’s
Surface
Handout: External Forces:
Shaping of the Earth’s
Surface KEY
Purpose:
Students are able to
differentiate between
external forces and internal
forces.
Say:
How do internal forces cause the creation of natural resources?
How do internal forces create or impact natural
hazards? (Answers will vary. Pressure from the movement of
plates causes the compression of land, thus forming various
resources. Internal forces cause plates to move which can result
in volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, lahars, landslides, etc.).
Students add to the Forces of Change (K-W-L-H Chart), paying
special attention to what they have learned.
Homework: To prepare for tomorrow’s assignment, assign students a
specific landform for which they must determine internal and external
forces that have shaped and continue to shape it. Note: Tomorrow’s
assignment is group work; however, if the teacher only assigns the
landform (knowing the group each child will be given) then each
student will more likely to be able to engage at a higher level and be
more prepared individually.
Attachments:
Handout: Landform
Diagram Instructions
Purpose:
Distribute the Handout: Landform Diagram Instructions
Facilitate a class discussion where students provide evidence to
support the Key Understanding, answering the Guiding Questions in
the process.
Physical forces cause change in the Earth’s landscape over time,
which alter the human landscape and force adaptations and
modifications to the environment.
- How are Earth-Sun relationships related to
weather conditions and climate?
- How do physical processes affect the
environments of regions?
- What physical processes affect the lithosphere,
atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere?
- How do elevation, latitude, wind systems, ocean
currents, position on a continent, and mountain
barriers influence temperature, - precipitation, and
distribution of climate regions?
- How do physical processes cause the
development of different landforms?
- How does climate influence the distribution of
biomes in different regions?
- What are formal, functional, and perceptual
regions?
- What types of internal and external forces of
change are present in the physical environment?
- How do internal and external forces of change
create and shape landforms?
- How do internal and external forces of change
affect human population?
- How do humans interact with the physical
environment?
- What are consequences of extreme weather and
other natural disasters? Include El Niño, floods,
tsunamis, and volcanoes.
During the discussion, encourage students to use academic
language. Create a list of the academic vocabulary terms that
students use.
Day 7
Construct a diagram showing the movement of plates and the
creation of landforms; conduct an oral presentation that explains the
internal and external forces that affect change on a major landform.
Students construct their diagram and use a rubric to rate their
Students apply what they
have learned about internal
and external forces through
the study of a specific
landform.
product. The product does not have to be limited to 2-dimensional
paper. If desired, objects, computer models, and other methods could
also be used.
As students prepare their oral presentations, encourage use of the
academic vocabulary terms on the list created during the Elaborate
section.
Invite parents or another class to visit the classroom during the last
20 minutes so students can conduct their oral presentations with an
authentic audience.
Teacher circulates, listening to the presentations and evaluating
student work using the same rubric students used.
Accommodations for
Special Populations
Accommodations for instruction will be provided as stated on each student’s (IEP) Individual
Education Plan for special education, 504, at risk, and ESL/Bilingual.