Sciences for the IB MYP 1: by Concept
Teacher(s)
Unit title
6 Where do we fit into the world?
UNIT PLANNER
Subject group and
discipline
Sciences
MYP year
1
Unit duration (hrs)
Inquiry: Establishing the purpose of the unit
Key concept
Related concept(s)
Global context
Systems
Environment
Orientation in space and time
Models
Statement of inquiry
We have learnt about our place in the systems that affect life on Earth through looking beyond into space and making models.
Inquiry questions
Factual – What is in the Solar System? Where is the Earth? What is the structure of our planet?
Conceptual – How do different systems of the Earth affect each other? How do models help us understand Earth’s systems? How does knowledge
from space exploration help us to understand the Earth?
Debatable – To what extent does looking into space help us to improve our models of Earth’s systems?
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Objectives
D: All strands
UNIT PLANNER
Summative assessment
Outline of summative assessment
task(s) including assessment criteria:
Relationship between summative assessment task(s) and statement of inquiry:
Criterion D: Reflecting on the impacts
of science – Take action! Into space?
Students inquire into the relationship between the advent of space research, our
understanding of the inter-relationship of Earth’s systems, our place in them and impact
on the Earth.
Approaches to learning (ATL)
Communication skills:
use a variety of media to communicate with a range of audiences
organize and depict information logically
Collaboration skills:
delegate and share responsibility for decision-making
Organization skills:
select and use technology effectively and productively
Information literacy skills:
access information to be informed and inform others
make connections between various sources of information
process data and report results
understand and use technology systems
Critical-thinking skills:
gather and organize relevant information to formulate an argument
interpret data
evaluate evidence and arguments
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draw reasonable conclusions and generalizations
evaluate and manage risk
use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues
Creative-thinking skills:
apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products or processes
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Action: Teaching and learning through inquiry
Content
Learning process
All students should:
Learning experiences and teaching strategies
Organize objects in the Solar System as
planets, natural satellites, comets,
asteroids
The Learner Profile disposition of Reflective underlies the learning experiences in this unit as students
are prompted to reflect on how human understanding of our place in space and time has been affected
by increasing knowledge and information, just as they are prompted to reflect on changes in their own
understanding as they explore the inter-relatedness of Earth’s systems.
Describe the main regions of the Earth
system: geosphere (and lithosphere),
hydrosphere (and Cryosphere),
atmosphere, biosphere (androsphere)
Identify and describe the main regions of
the Earth’s interior: inner core, outer
core, mantle, crust
Evaluate geological and paleontological
evidence for the formation and
development of the Earth
Identify and describe the main regions of
the atmosphere: Troposphere,
Stratosphere, Mesosphere,
Thermosphere, Exosphere
Identify and describe the main regions
and forms of water in the hydrosphere:
oceans, atmospheric vapour, ice,
underground water, and groundwater
 See–Think–Wonder (p. 115)
Students begin by thinking about the International Space Station and how humans have lived
aboard continuously since 2000.
 Activity: The sky in an app (p. 117)
This activity uses common ‘night sky’ smartphone apps (such as The Night Sky™ on Apple or
Skyview™ on Android devices) to review or familiarize students with fundamental categories of
objects – or, in the case of constellations, imaginary patterns!
 Discuss (p. 117)
Much valuable discussion can be drawn from the use of ‘night sky’ apps – the second prompt
question in the text asks students to consider which of the objects would appear to move the most
quickly, which can be extended into a consideration of distance of the objects. Similarly, students
can be prompted to consider why they can’t actually see the objects shown above the horizon – if
the activity is carried out in daytime – or below the horizon. From this a model of the Solar System
can be developed to complement the following activity.
 Activity: Sorting the Solar System (p. 117)
Students research objects – perhaps using online sources – in order to familiarize themselves
further with principal categories of objects found in the Solar System, and to gain a sense of the
diversity of structures in space, from rocky asteroids to gas planets.
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Evaluate the impact of space exploration
on our understanding of the Solar System
Some students could:
Summarize theories about the origins of
the Solar System and the formation of
planets and satellites
Outline the principal geological eons in
the development of the Earth:
Precambrian (Hadean, Archean,
Proterozoic) and Paleozoic
Evaluate evidence for the existence of
chemicals necessary for life – notably
water – in other parts of the Solar System
UNIT PLANNER
Recent space research missions to asteroids (such as NASA’s DAWN mission
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/ ) or comets (such as ESA’s Rosetta mission
www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta) might be useful extension sources here.
 Activity: Spinning through space (p. 118)
Individually: Students can enrich the explanation given in the preceding text with their own research
into models for formation of the Solar System from gravitational collapse of a nebula. Care should
be taken to guide student research – while a ‘vortex model’ can be used to visualize the way that
planets are formed in orbit around the Sun, some misleading animations have been posted which
wrongly imply that the Sun is not the gravitational ‘centre’ of the Solar System as such (to all intents
and purposes, give or take tiny perturbations by other more distant objects, it is). They are asked to
outline the evidence for this model – principally the near-alignment of planetary orbits to the
ecliptic plane, the near-vertical orientation of planetary axes to the ecliptic, and the fact that most
planets orbit in the direction of their rotation around the Sun. Students are then prompted to
commensurate some of the apparently contradictory evidence, such as retrograde motion and tilted
axes.
Approaches: Spinning through space
This document provides a Criterion A rubric for Activity: Spinning through space.
 Discuss (p. 119)
Students discuss the appearance of Earth from space.
 Activity: Identifying the spheres (p. 120)
Individually: This activity establishes the purpose of the unit in prompting students to think about
the Earth in terms of large-scale systems that are inter-related. The use of a visual organizer (Figure
6.8) allows them to think about overlap and connection between the systems. The extension activity
modifies their understanding to accommodate sub-systems such as the geosphere (the surface part
of the lithosphere that is susceptible to geological processes), the cryosphere (the part of the
hydrosphere that is frozen) and the concept of the androsphere (the parts of Earth’s systems that
are impacted by human activity).
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Differentiation resource: Identifying the spheres (interactive)
Students match descriptions with the appropriate Earth system.
 Activity: Evaluating our impact (p. 122)
Visual stimuli in Figure 6.10 prompt students to discuss human impact on the different Earth
systems. Individual research is then used to categorize and evaluate each of the impacts – and to
consider the extent of their effect as local or global.
Approaches: Evaluating our impact
This document provides a Criterion A rubric for Activity: Evaluating our impact.
 Activity: Chocolate Earth (p. 124)
Students use, for example, hard-centred caramel chocolates to visualize the structure of the Earth.
(Other suitable chocolates are Ferrero Rocher™ pralines.) While a fun introduction to the
lithosphere, the target science skill is to use a mean average of different measurements to obtain a
working figure. This is then compared to the real relative thicknesses of core, mantle and crust in
the following activity, thus prompting students to think about the strengths and limitations of
models.
Approaches: Chocolate Earth
This document provides a Criterion C rubric for Activity: Chocloate Earth.
 Activity: How thin is the crust? (p. 126)
Students interpret information in the text to calculate average thicknesses for the crust, mantle and
core of the Earth, then calculate the percentage of the Earth’s radius for each. They then carry out
the same calculations for Activity: Chocolate Earth and compare – this allows them thus to evaluate
the Chocolate Earth model.
 Activity: The Earth is moving (p. 127)
Individually or in pairs: Students use a geographical information system (GIS) to research plate
tectonics and relate them to the location of mountain ranges (http://bit.ly/earthgeoinquiry9). They
then compare with Figure 6.16 in order to make the connection between constructive margins and
rock age.
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Approaches: The Earth is moving
This document provides a Criterion A rubric for Activity: The Earth is moving.
 Activity: Rock and roll! (p. 129)
More chocolate! The three demonstrations prompt students to visualize the different processes of
sedimentation, metamorphosis and igneous transformation. Students can be prompted to
categorize each change as physical or chemical according to their understanding from Chapter 2.
Use of white and dark chocolate allows for the visualization of different rock types.
Approaches: Rock and roll!
This document provides a Criterion C rubric for Activity: Rock and roll!
 Extension (p. 130)
Students can explore the concept of radioactive dating to discover the ages of rocks.
 Activity: Tracks of the past (p. 132)
Individually or in pairs: This activity involves modelling fossil formation. The sugar dissolves into the
surrounding sand to form a ‘cake’ which allows the cavity to remain afterwards. Sugar is the nearest
readily available substance that is soluble enough, although teachers may wish to experiment with
others. Pouring plaster of Paris through drinking straws requires some steadiness of hand and a
quite dilute solution, so teachers may wish to substitute the straws with a wider diameter tube to
allow for thicker plaster and so shorter setting times.
The evaluation prompts students to consider the limitations of fossil evidence – for example, it
cannot give us much detailed information about the insides of living creatures.
 See–Think–Wonder (p. 134)
Students consider a video of a high-altitude balloon being launched from New Zealand.
 Activity: What a great atmosphere! (p. 137)
This activity provides an opportunity for students to develop their data presentation skills, either by
hand or using a spreadsheet. The prompt questions then require students to interpret the data for
both pressure and temperature variation.
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Differentiation resource: What a great atmosphere!
A spreadsheet is available with data and graphs pre-produced.
 Activity: Being dense (p. 139)
It is not immediately obvious to students that liquids or gases can lie on top of each other in ‘layers’
and this guided investigation allows students both to observe layering of fluids and introduces the
target science concept of density. Glycerine, water and ethanol are all colourless, reinforcing the
idea that such ‘layers’ of varying density might not be visible – although the vegetable oils allow for
observation of this one layer. Dropping blocks of different densities into the fluids should allow
students to observe the way that the density affects buoyancy as the blocks either settle to float on
particular layers, accelerate or decelerate as they pass through them.
Differentiation resource: Being dense
This resources provides a writing frame for Activity: Being dense.
Approaches: Being dense
This document provides Criterion B and Criterion C rubrics for Activity: Being dense.
 Activity: Hot air rising (p. 141)
This demonstration encourages students to transfer understanding of the different buoyancies
produced by different densities of a gas. Students should consider the environmental impact of
letting the balloons escape and this can easily be avoided by tying a thin thread to the balloon
before releasing. Students may also refer to Kongming lanterns.
 See–Think–Wonder (p. 142)
Students compare images of Earth to those of Venus and Mars.
 Discuss (p. 143)
Students research and discuss the densities of water and of ice.
 Activity: Water, water everywhere – but how much to drink? (p. 144)
Using the data in table 6.5, students interpret numerical data on volumes of water in different forms
on the Earth to calculate the amount of fresh water available for each person on Earth. While this
yields a figure that seems quite generous, comparison to the video documentary ‘Blue Gold: World
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Water Wars’ should prompt reflection about the geopolitical, socioeconomic factors that skew the
availability of water worldwide, which informs the evaluation stage of the activity.
Approaches: Water, water everywhere – but how much to drink?
This document provides a Criterion A rubric for Activity: Water, water everywhere – but how much
to drink?
 Extension (p. 145)
Students can find out more about the salinity of the Earth’s seas at http://aquarius.nasa.gov, and
about molecular reasons for the relative densities of water and ice.
 Activity: Salty ice (p. 145)
This guided investigation prompts students to investigate the effect of varying salinity on freezing
point. Students may be able to draw from authentic experience such as using salt on freezing days
to melt snow or ice on the roads or pavements.
Differentiation resource: Salty ice
This resources provides a writing frame for Activity: Salty ice.
Approaches: Salty ice
This document provides Criterion B and Criterion C rubrics for Activity: Salty ice.
 Activity: ICESat and the polar ice cap (p. 146)
Students compare photographic evidence for change in extent of the North Pole ice cap to longer
term data on mean surface area of polar ice. The activity encourages them to identify the longerterm trend beneath the seasonal variations evidenced in the data.
Approaches: ICESat and the polar ice cap
This document provides a Criterion A rubric for Activity: ICESat and the polar ice cap.
 Extension (p. 146)
Students can find out more about glacier reduction worldwide, and about global sea level variations.

Activity: Into space? (p. 148)
In this summative activity, students research a space mission, with a view to presenting their
findings to a United Nations commission on space research. They need to justify the mission in
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terms of its benefits – how it has contributed to our scientific understanding of Earth systems, for
example – as well as its costs.
Approaches: Into space?
This document provides a Criterion D rubric for Activity: Into space?
Formative assessment
Criterion A: Knowing and understanding
Activity: Spinning through space
Activity: Evaluating our impact
Activity: How thin is the crust?
Criterion C: Processing and evaluating
Activity: Chocolate Earth
Activity: Rock and roll!
Differentiation
Students are supported in developing and organizing their understanding through the use of a variety
of graphic organizers, templates, modelled activities, and examples.
Opportunities for independent/partner extensions and explorations through online research allow
students to engage in the inquiry process according to their individualized learning needs and interests.
The open-ended summative assessment and writing templates allow students to more independently
engage in the inquiry process according to their individualized learning needs and interests.
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Resources
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Available in Dynamic Learning:
Chapter 6 Building blocks (PowerPoint)
Approaches: Spinning through space (Word)
Differentiation resource: Identifying the spheres (interactive)
Approaches: Evaluating our impact (Word)
Approaches: Chocolate Earth (Word)
Approaches: The Earth is moving (Word)
Approaches: Rock and roll! (Word)
Differentiation resource: What a great atmosphere! (Excel)
Differentiation resource: Being dense (Word)
Approaches: Being dense (Word)
Approaches: Water, water everywhere – but how much to drink? (Word)
Differentiation resource: Salty ice (Word)
Approaches: Salty ice (Word)
Approaches: ICESat and the polar ice cap (Word)
Approaches: Into space? (Word)
Web resources:
ESRI Geographical Information System (GIS) at http://education.maps.arcgis.com/home/index.html
Mountain ranges/tectonic boundaries interactive map © American Geosciences Institute at http://bit.ly/earthgeoinquiry9
NASA Aquarius ocean salinity project site at http://aquarius.nasa.gov
NASA Ocean Surface Topography https://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/
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NASA’s DAWN mission to an asteroid at http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov
ESA’s Rosetta mission to a comet at www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta
Information about salinity from the National Snow and Ice Data Center at
https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/seaice/characteristics/brine_salinity.html
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UNIT PLANNER
Reflection: Considering the planning, process and impact of the inquiry
Prior to teaching the unit
During teaching
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After teaching the unit
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