Grade 8, Unit 2 Assessment
Standard: 8.E.1.1 Students are able to identify and classify minerals and rocks.
Objective: I know the difference between a rock and a mineral.
1. How are rocks and minerals different?
Objective: I can describe physical and chemical properties of minerals.
1. Look at the sample mineral. Describe one chemical property of the mineral
and three physical properties of the mineral.
a. Chemical property ________________________________________________________
b. Physical properties _______________________________________________________
2. What are two properties that can be used to help describe a mineral?
a. __________________________________________
b. __________________________________________
Objective: I can determine the identity of a mineral when given a sample or
description.
1. Take one of the minerals. Use the physical and chemical properties and your
mineral identification chart to figure out what mineral you have.
a. Mineral sample # _________
b. Mineral name ___________________________________
Name the mineral
2. _____________________ Hardness of 9, brown color, and white streak.
3. _____________________ Hardness of 2, black color, grayish black streak.
4. _____________________ Hardness of 4, bright green color, and a light green streak.
Objective : I know the three types of rocks.
1. What are the three types of rocks?
a. ___________________________________
b. ___________________________________
c. ___________________________________
Objective: I can explain how igneous rocks are created.
1. Igneous rocks are formed when…
a. layers of sediment have been cemented together.
b. heat and pressure have changed the rock.
c. rocks have melted into magma and then cooled.
2. How are igneous rocks created? Write at least two sentences to explain your
answer.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Objective: I can explain how metamorphic rocks are created.
1. Metamorphic rocks are formed when…
a. layers of sediment have been cemented together.
b. heat and pressure have changed the rock.
c. rocks have melted into magma and then cooled.
2. How are metamorphic rocks created? Write at least two sentences to explain
your answer.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Objective: I can explain how sedimentary rocks are created.
1. Sedimentary rocks are formed when…
a. layers of sediment have been cemented together.
b. heat and pressure have changed the rock.
c. rocks have melted into magma and then cooled.
2. How are sedimentary rocks created? Write at least two sentences to explain
your answer.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Objective: I can determine the identity of a rock when given a sample.
1. Pick three rock samples. Use your knowledge of the rock types and your
observations of the rocks to identify all three samples you have chosen.
a. Rock # _______
Rock name ____________________________
b. Rock # _______
Rock name ____________________________
c. Rock # _______
Rock name ____________________________
Objective: I can explain and draw a diagram to show the entire rock cycle.
1. Granite and sandstone are two different kinds of rock. Something has to
happen in order for one type of rock to turn into another type. Use your
knowledge of the rock cycle to explain how granite might change into
sandstone.
2. Draw a diagram to show the rock cycle.
Objective: I can explain how geologist know the age of rocks
1. Geologists have just found a new layer of rocks. What are two ways that they
could try to find out the age of these newly found rocks?
a. ________________________________________________________________________________
b. ________________________________________________________________________________
Standard: 8.E.1.5 Students are able to explain the impact of weathering and
erosion on the Earth.
Objective: SWBAT explain that earth processes operate on extremely long time scales
(geologic time)
1. Why don’t geologists measure geological time in units of days or months?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Geologic time extends from
a.
b.
c.
d.
500 million years ago to the beginning of human history
Earth’s origins to the present day
The beginning of human history to the present day
Earth’s origin to the beginning of human history
Objective: I know what weathering is and what causes it to happen.
1. Weathering is a process that rocks go through when they are exposed to their
environment. What happens during weathering?
Objective: I can explain the difference between physical and chemical weathering.
1. What is the difference between physical and chemical weathering? Write at
least two sentences to explain your answer.
Objective: I can give examples of physical and chemical weathering
1. Give one example of physical weathering and one example of chemical
weathering.
a. Physical weathering: ________________________________________________________
b. Chemical weathering: _______________________________________________________
Objective: I know what erosion is and can explain what causes it to happen.
1. Erosion does a lot to shape and change our Earth. What happens to small
rock pieces during erosion?
Objective: I know what deposition is and can explain what causes it to happen.
1. Deposition is an important part of the rock cycle. Explain what deposition is
and what causes it happen.
Objective: I can determine the environment where a rock was created.
Rock Formation Name
Type of Rock
1. Cedar Mountain Formation
Sandstone and shale
2. Entrada Sandstone
Sandstone
3. Callville Limestone
Limestone
Other Features
Petrified wood, ferms, waterlillies, palm tree leaves
Crossbedding, frosted sand
grains, reptile tracks
Coral, brachiopod and bivalve
shells.
Use the chart above to answer the following questions
1. What ancient environment do you think produced the Entrada Sandstone?
a. Swamp or floodplain
b. Sand dunes or desert
c. Marine or ocean
2. What evidence from the chart proves that your answer is correct?
a. Crossbedding and frosted sand grains.
b. This rock forms in water, and the fossils are all sea organisms
c. This type of rock indicates a basin with standing or slow-moving
water
d. The fossils indicate a swamp or forested, wet area
Standard: 8.E.1.2 Students are able to explain the role of plate tectonics in
shaping Earth.
Objective: I know the layers of the Earth and what they are made up of.
1. Label the four layers of the earth.
2. Match the name of each layer of Earth with its description.
Layer
Description
_______ Mantle
a. outermost layer and is made up of solid rock
_______ Crust
b. is made super-heated magma that is made up of iron and nickel
_______ Inner core c. is made up of solid iron and nickel
_______ Outer core d. is made up of hot viscous fluid that flows very, very slowly
Objective: I can explain continental drift and the evidence for this theory
1. Coal deposits have been found beneath the ice of Antarctica. The problem is
that coal only forms in warm swamps in tropical environments. Use the
theory of Continental Drift to explain this situation.
2. Dr. Alfred Wegener proposed the theory of continental drift. Explain one
piece of evidence for this theory.
Objective: I can explain sea
floor spreading and I can
explain the theory of plate
tectonics.
_____ Seafloor Spreading
_____ Plate Tectonics
A. All of the continents were one large landmass at one time
but have drifted into their current places.
B. The growth of oceanic crust at the mid-ocean ridge as
magma escapes through weak sections of the crust.
C. Objects with masses attract one another
D. A theory that combines the drift and spreading theories.
According to this theory large sections of the Earth’s
crust float on the upper mantle and are subject to move.
E. The universe is expanded from a dense and hot mass of
elements
_____ Continental Drift
Objective: I can describe how tectonic plates move.
1. Geologists think that the movement of the Earth’s tectonic plates is cause by
A. some unknown force
B. ocean currents
C. convection currents in the Earth’s mantle
D. heat from the sun
Objective: I can use words and pictures to describe the three ways that tectonic plates
interact.
Match a plate boundary name with a picture
1. ________Transform
2.
A.
________Divergent
3. ________Convergent
B.
C.
4. The San Andreas Fault is a transform plate boundary. Draw arrows to
show the direction of movement of the two plates there.
5. The Australian Plate and the Pacific Plate are convergent plates. Draw
arrows on both plates to show the direction they are moving in.
6. The South American plate and the African plate meet at a divergent plate
boundary. Draw arrows on both plates to show the direction of movement
at the spreading center.
Objective: I can describe the Earth features that are created when tectonic plates
converge.
Objective: I can describe the Earth features that are created when tectonic plates
diverge.
Objective: I can describe the Earth features created by transform tectonic plates.
1. Match up the boundary types with the correct descriptions of how Earth
might react.
Convergent
Earthquakes
Divergent
Mountain ranges like the Himalayas
Transform
Volcanoes formed from cracks where magma can reach
the surface
2. Think about one of the boundary types we talked about in class (either
convergent, divergent, or transform). Write at least three sentences about
how that type of boundary types changes the land that sits on top of it.
3. The collision of two continental plates at a plate boundary will most likely
produce-
A.
B.
C.
D.
a rift valley
mountain ranges
volcanic islands
mid-ocean ridges