Common Core Curriculum Map 2015-2016
Common Core Unit Name: Earth Systems, Structures and Processes
Unit Number: 7
Enduring Understanding:
8.E.1 Understand the hydrosphere and the impact of humans on local systems and the effects of the hydrosphere on humans.
Standard
Essential Questions
Pacing Guideline
8.E.1.1
8.E.1.1
23 days
Explain the structure of the hydrosphere
 How is water distributed on Earth?
including:
 How do people and other living things
 Water distribution on Earth
use water?
 Local river basins and water
 How does water on Earth move through
availability
the water cycle?
 What is a river basin?
 What is a watershed?
 What is the interconnection between
watersheds and river basins?
 How does water move through
underground layers of soil and rock?
 Why is groundwater important?
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Common Core Curriculum Map 2015-2016
8.E.1.2
Summarize evidence that Earth’s oceans are
a reservoir of nutrients, minerals, dissolved
gases, and life forms:
 Estuaries
 Marine ecosystems
 Upwelling
 Behavior of gases in the marine
environment
 Deep ocean technology and
understandings gained
8.E.1.2
 Why should people study the oceans?
 What are main features of the ocean
floor?
 What processes have shaped the ocean
floor?
 What are the main ocean zones and
what are characteristics of each?
 What marine organisms inhabit these
major zones?
 How are marine organisms classified?
 What is a terrestrial/aquatic food web?
 How are they interconnected?
 What is an estuary and why is it
important?
 What is a hydrothermal vent and what
type of organism can live in this
environment?
 What technologies are used to study
the ocean?
 What is the importance of upwelling?
 What are some interactions between
humans and the ocean?
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Common Core Curriculum Map 2015-2016
8.E.1.3
Predict the safety and potability of water
supplies in North Carolina based on
physical and biological factors, including:
• Temperature
• Dissolved oxygen
• pH
• Nitrates and phosphates
• Turbidity
• Bio-indicators
8.E.1.4
Conclude that the good health of humans
requires:
• Monitoring of the hydrosphere
• Water quality standards
• Methods of water treatment
• Maintaining safe water quality
• Stewardship
8.E.1.3
 What are the main indicators used to
determine the quality of a water
system?
 What chemical and biological
techniques are used to test the quality
of water?
 How are data from tests analyzed to
determine the health of a water system?
8.E.1.4
 Why is water important to our lives?
 How do we know if our drinking water
is healthy?
 How is our drinking water treated?
 What is stewardship and how can we
be stewards of our environment?
 What federal laws ensure the quality of
water on Earth?
 How can humans help conserve water
resources and prevent pollution from
occurring?
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Common Core Curriculum Map 2015-2016
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Algae Bloom
Aquifer
Artesian well
Bioindicator
Chemosynthesis
Condensation
Divide
Estuary
Eutrophication
Evaporation
Freshwater
Groundwater
Hydrosphere
Impermeable
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Essential Vocabulary
Marine
Non Point Source Pollution
Nutrients
Ocean Basin
Permeable
pH Scale
Point Source Pollution
Pollutant
Pollution
Precipitation
Reservoir
river basins
salinity
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saturated zone
solvent
Stewardship
Transpiration
Tributary
Turbidity
universal solvent
unsaturated zone
Upwelling
water cycle
water table
Watershed
Wetland
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