Curriculum Topic Study
Unit Title: Earth Science
Big Idea(s): Earth System and Processes include the long term movement of
crustal plates that build up mountains, cause earthquakes, tsunami, and
volcanoes.
Essential Questions:
 What role do friction and density play in plate tectonics?
 How can wave behavior be used to explain the motions of earthquakes?
 What is convection, and how can it be used to describe the movement of
magma and crustal plates?
 Describe earth processes that can be observed in the Pacific Northwest and
describe how this gives evidence of past geological events.
Topical Questions (from performance expectations in the state standards):
 Demonstrate how friction between plates keeps plates from moving for long
periods (locked) and present a physical model of how plates release, causing
earthquakes. (6-8 PS1B)
 Use a model to describe how density of materials drives the process of plate
tectonics, moving the plates as though on a conveyor belt. (6-8 PS2A)
 Describe how different types of earthquake waves move through the earth
differently, and how energy of an earthquake wave can cause destruction
through their different movements. (6-8 PS3A)
 Use an everyday example of convection (also known as mechanical mixing) to
show how magma moves in the mantle. (6-8 PS3B)
 Identify an earthquake wave as a type of energy wave, and explain that the
vibration of earthquake waves is the source of their destructive power. (PS3F)
 Describe the layers of the Earth and be able to sketch and label the relative
thickness and consistency of each (6-8 ES2E)
 Draw a labeled diagram of how convection in the upper mantle drives
movement of the crustal plates. (6-8 ES2F)
 Describe what may happen when plate boundaries meet; use some examples
from the Pacific Northwest. (6-8 ES2F)
 Explain how a given landform, such as a mountain, could be shaped (built up
and broken down) (6-8 ES2G)
 Describe Earth processes that we can observe and measure today, such as
crustal plates, that provide clues to Earth’s past (6-8 ES3A)
 Interpret current landforms of the Pacific Northwest as evidence of past
BESD Revised 4/28/09
geological events (6-8 ES3D)
 Describe how crustal plate movement can change the nonliving factors in an
ecosystem and identify how scientists examine what happens over time to
nonliving factors using current geologic formations and fossils. (LS2D)
Common Misconceptions:
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Students often believe that the world was always as it is now
Density is often confused with weight (how “heavy” something is, vs. “heavy for its size”)
Many children think that all mountains are volcanoes
Many children think of all rocks as coming from a volcano, regardless of whether they are
sedimentary, metamorphic, or igneous.
Children often think that a random, unspecific buildup of heat and pressure ONLY is what is
responsible for mountain-building, and do not grasp the connection to plate tectonics.
Children often misunderstand the topic of heat and heat transfer, flow, and think of “cold”
as a substance rather than an absence of heat energy.
Many students do not recognize friction as a force (many see a force only as “getting things
going” rather than stopping things, and see friction as a directionless resistance to motion
distinct from a force opposed to motion).
Many students believe that changes are sudden (geologic time scale is difficult to grasp)
Student often cannot explain the causes of volcanoes and earthquakes
Pre-existing understandings:
Processes that Shape the Earth:
 Some changes are slow and some are fast
 Change is something that happens to many things
 Chunks of rock come in many shapes and sizes (sand to boulders)
 How fast things move differs greatly
 Things change in a steady, repetitive, or irregular ways
 Waves, wind, water, and ice shape and re-shape the earth
 Things on or near the earth are pulled toward it by earth’s gravity
 Rock is composed of different minerals (smaller rocks come from weathering and breakage)
Plate tectonics:
 There are a variety of different landforms on the earth’s surface
Critical Thinking Skill focus (meta-cognition skills): Note booking questions, ways
they understand, and how they came to their new knowledge.
 Hmm, Duh, Aha! sheet could be used for metacognitive checks or exit
slips/warm-ups
 Essential questions can be answered at the end of each chapter or unit as a
mini-quiz or formative assessment or topical questions (performance
expectations from standards) to guide thinking and use as notebook questions.
 Probes found/developed to uncover student misconceptions (Keeley, etc)
*Mountaintop fossil, Keeley “Uncovering” volume 2
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Necessary skills, facts, and processes needed (focused on in this unit/kit):
Modeling (making and interpreting)
Measurement of properties (density)
Inquiry and the scientific method—
*predicting what will happen
*conducting experiments
*drawing conclusions from a specific circumstance
Drawing labeled diagrams of phenomena
Comparing and Contrasting
Observing and describing processes that happen in the world
Vocabulary:
Earthquake, map legend, stored (potential) energy, earthquake waves (seismic waves), fault, creep,
focus, epicenter, crust, lithosphere, mantle, outer core, inner core, tectonic plates, convection current,
diameter, magma, divergent plate boundary, lateral (transform) plate boundary, convergent plate
boundary, volcano, mountain, plain, plateau, continental slope, abyssal plain, underwater delta,
turbidity current, wave amplitude, earthquake intensity, earthquake magnitude, seismograph,
seismogram, surface waves, body waves, P- (primary) waves, S- (secondary) waves, expansion,
compression, isoseismal, tsunami, mountain range
WA State Standards for grades 6-8 covered
PS1B, PS2A, PS3A, PS3B, PS3F, ES2E, ES2F, ES2G, ES3A, ES3D, LS2D
(on attached matrix sheet)
Formative Assessments:
*probes
*essential questions as “quizzes”
*topical questions as exit slips or warm-ups
Summative Assessment:
Needs to be developed
Assessment types and possible questions:
*Challenge students to design/build their own seismograph after using the one in
the materials
*Challenge students to design an earthquake-proof structure (spaghetti tower?)
*Have students design a flow chart of processes that are involved in plate
tectonics
*Have students do a research project on a major local geologic/natural
catastrophe (earthquake, volcano, or tsunami)
*Have students design models of the different topics (plate tectonics, layers of
the earth, continental drift)
Pre-Test(s)
Should be developed in conjunction with the summative assessment(s).
BESD Revised 4/28/09
Investigation Pacing (investigation numbers and number weeks):
Introduction: 1-2 days (1-2, 50-minute periods)
Unit I: Defining an Earthquake
*Energy waves cause Earthquakes: About 1 ½ weeks (8, 50-minute periods).
-Activities: 1: A wet wave experience, 2: It’s your fault, 3: Visual vocabulary,
4: Local legends
Unit II: Why and Where Earthquakes occur
*Plates going places (grades 3-4 unit): About 1 week (5-6, 50-minute periods).
Do only if students need remediation or have insufficient background.
-Activities: 1: What’s Inside, 2: We’re all cracked up, 3: Plates of the earth, 4:
Hot stuff rises and cold stuff sinks.
*Layers, Plates, and Quakes: About 1 week (5-6, 50-minute periods)
Activities: 1: Crust to core: a pizza the earth, 2: Busy boundaries, 3: Slide,
collide, and separate, 4: The history of geography
Unit III: Physical Results of Earthquakes
*Building up and breaking down: About 1 week (5-6, 50-minute periods)
-Activities: 1: Mountain, plain, and plateau, 2: The folding mountains
mystery, 3: Mountain molding, 4: Underwater avalanche
Unit IV: Measuring Earthquakes
*Sizing up Earthquake waves: About 1 week (5-6, 50-minute periods)
-Activities: 1: Popping P-waves, 2: The S-wave machine, 3: Traveling tremors,
4: Set up a seismograph
Unit V: Recognizing an Earthquake
*Quake events range far and wide: About 1 week (5-6, 50-minute periods)
-Activities: 1: Quake events, 2: Earthquakes are expensive, 3: Sizing up
isoseimals, 4: Tsunami!
Notes on Remediation and Acceleration:
Remediation: An extra week can be spent in unit II doing the grades 3-4 activities
if necessary.
Acceleration: Two of the activities could be cut out of Unit V if the teacher
thought it necessary or appropriate.
Extension: Students could complete a project in conjunction with this unit, either
as an at-home research project, or as an in-class project such as building spaghetti
towers that are earthquake-resistant.
BESD Revised 4/28/09