The E.S.S Project
By, Steven Payette
ESS 1.2.1
Describe the layers of the earth,
including the core, mantle, lithosphere,
hydrosphere, and atmosphere.
The Four Major Layers of the Earth
• The earth is divided into four major layers: Inner core,
outer core, mantle, and the crust.
• The inner core is under so much pressure it is a solid,
and is so hot it makes the outer core molten rock. It is
about 4,300ْ ºc.
• The outer core is mostly iron, and is molten rock from the
inner core heating it up from convection. It is mostly
3,700ºc.
• The earths mantle is the heaviest part of the earth. It is
mostly 1000ºc. The mantle is also a solid but can deform
slowly into a plastic form.
• The earths crust is the thinnest part of the four layers of
earth. It is also the part that me live on. It is rocky and
can fracture to make earthquakes.
Lithosphere, and Hydrosphere.
• The lithosphere has two parts too it: The crust,
and the upper mantle.
• The Lithosphere is the earths outer most layer.
• It is also were we live.
• The Lithosphere floats on the molten rock from
the earths mantle and moves from convection.
When the Lithosphere moves it causes
earthquakes.
• The Hydrosphere is where all earths water sits
over. It covers 71% of the earths surface.
ESS 1.2.2
Evidence That Proves Plate
Tectonics To Be True.
• The Himalayas are prove that plate
tectonics are real and are working right
now.
• Scientist have found limestone at the very
top of the Himalayas which only forms at
the bottom of warm shallow seas.
• They also have found fossils of marine life
on the peaks of the mountains. Which
prove that the mountain was formed when
the Indian plate and the Eurasian plate
collided and formed a massive mountain
range.
ESS 1.3.1
Explain how fossils in sedimentary rock
can support the theories of earths
evolution over geological time.
• The Glossopteris plant is fossilized in sedimentary rock
in 5 continents: South America, Africa, Asia, Australia,
and Antarctica.
• There is only one way that the glossopteris plant made it
to all of those continents, and that is that at one time all
of those continents were once together.
• This planet flourished in those five continents over 250
million years ago.
• The glossopteris evidence isn't the only evidence that we
have to prove that plate tectonics works.
• There are mountain ranges that end on one continent
and continue on the other. This proves that those 2
continents were once together and formed that mountain
range.
ESS 1.4.1
Describe how catastrophic changes
that have taken place on earth be
reveled by satellite images.
• Catastrophic changes on earth can happen in
seconds or over millions of years.
• One huge catastrophic change that is happening
right now is the melting of the polar ice caps. We
can see a decrease in the polar ice caps by
taking pictures of them by a satellite over a
couple decades. The pictures show that 10
decades the polar ice caps were bigger and they
are a lot smaller now.
• Another catastrophic change on earth that
happens over years is the deforestation of the
Amazon rain forest. From 1991 to 2000 more
area than 6 times the size of Portugal was
cleared . We can see from satellite images the
decrease in trees from the Amazon rainforest.
ESS 1.5.1
Explain that the Earth's crust is
divided into plates that move at
extremely slow rates in response to
movements in the mantle;
• The thirteen major plates are all part of the
lithosphere. They float on the mantle and
move at extremely slow rates. They move
from convection. Convection is when
something is hot it rises and then when it
cools it will sink. When the mantle is
moving from convection it pulls the
lithosphere with it and that causes that
plates to move. The plates move at about
the same rate that your finger nails grow.
ESS 1.5.2
Explain how earth events, abruptly and
over time, can bring about changes in
Earth’s surface: landforms, ocean floor,
rock features, or climate.
• Plate tectonics can makes plates move
away, into, under, and over other plates.
This causes different features on earths
surface like: mountains, valleys, cliffs, and
canyons. This process happens over
millions of years.
• When a plate moves into a different region
the climate will change with it. Scientist
have proven that Antarctica once was in a
tropical region from fossils within its rock.
ESS 1.5.3
Explain the role of differential heating
or convection in ocean currents, winds,
weather and weather patterns,
atmosphere, or climate.
• The convection in ocean currents cause
the water to rise and sink as it travels. The
Gulf stream is an example of convection in
water currents. The water from the equator
travels up the side of the east coast of the
USA and as it goes closer up to the polar
ice caps it cools and sinks and travels
back down to the equator and heats back
and rises and starts over again. The warm
water heats up the air and causes a
warmer climate.
ESS 1.6.1
Describe the processes of the
rock cycle.
• The rock cycle is a very long cycle.
• Sedimentary rocks make up three quarters
of all the rocks on earths surface. When a
continent travels slowly under another
continent from plate tectonics it causes all
the rocks (mostly sedimentary rock) on
earths surface to heat up and turn into
metamorphic rock. When the rock heats
up enough it rises and cools it forms
igneous rocks.
ESS 1.6.2
Explain that sedimentary, igneous, and
metamorphic rocks contain evidence of
the minerals, temperatures, and forces
that created them.
• Scientist use the color and texture of a
rock to determine its mineral composition.
• A rocks texture helps a lot by determining
what rock it is. Grain size in a rock are
mostly large and easy to see. Grains
shape can also tell how the rock was
formed. Rocks with no visible grain were
made very quickly and cooled really fast,
so there was not as much minerals that
were in a rock.
ESS 1.6.3
Explain how sediments of sand and smaller
particles, which may contain the remains of
organisms, are gradually buried and
cemented together by dissolved minerals to
form solid rock.
When an organism dies it might get covered
with sediments. Then the sediments will
gradually get under great pressure and
form into rock and will preserve the
organism. Weathering and erosion will
eventually expose the fossil.
ESS 1.6.4
Using data about a rock’s physical
characteristics make and support an
inference about the rock’s history and
connection to the rock cycle.
• When a rocks grain has sand and clay in it
will be a sedimentary rock and has
probably been on earth for millions of
years. When a rocks Grains are layered,
that rock will be a metamorphic rock.
When a rock has a fine-grained, coarsegrained, or glassy that rock will be a
igneous rock.
A metamorphic rock
ESS 1.7.1
Describe how water flows into and through
a watershed, falling on the land, collecting in
rivers and lakes, soil, and porous layers of
rock, until much of it flows back into the
ocean.
A watershed is a land area that supplies
water to a river system. It gets its water
from runoff and aquifers in the ground and
when it rains. Then the rivers flow into
lakes or the ocean. When it rains the water
goes into rivers, lakes, or aquifers. Most of
it eventually flows into the ocean.
ESS 1.7.2
Identify the physical and chemical
properties that make water an
essential component of the Earth’s
system.
• Water is a liquid substance that has two
hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom
and that makes a drop of water. Water is
an essential part of earths system. Water
can erode, make deep canyons, and a lot
more. Every living thing on earth needs
water to survive. Water can be cold and
warm. It also heats and cools our air, and
can freeze to make glaciers.
ESS 1.7.3
Explain the processes that cause
cycling of water into and out of the
atmosphere and their connections to
our planet’s weather patterns.
• When water is in a lake or an ocean and it
warms up from the sun of something different it
will excite the molecules and make them less
dense and that will make the water evaporate.
• When the water evaporates it will rise and collect
around dust or pollution in the air. When all the
evaporated water reaches its dew point it will
condense and become to heavy and will fall
toward earths surface.
• Once the rain hits earths surface it will either go
to a lake, ocean, river, and a aquifer or runoff.
Runoff is when rain falls onto a mountain and
collects in a river and go to a lake or an ocean.
• Then the cycle repeats its self over and over.
ESS 2.1.1
Identify the characteristics of the
Sun and its position in the
universe.
• The sun has 70% Hydrogen, 28% Helium
and 2% of different types of metals. The
center of the sun temperature is
15,600,000° C. The surface temperature
of the sun is 5000° C. The sun produces
its heat from nuclear fusion, that happens
because of the pressure the sun has in the
center because its mass is so huge.
• The sun and our solar system are on the
out reaches of the milky way galaxy. The
sun is about 26 thousand light years away
from the center of the milky way galaxy.
ESS 2.1.2
Recognize the relationships between
the tides and the phases of the moon,
and use tide charts and NOAA
information to describe them.
ESS 2.1.3
Recognize and describe how the regular and
predictable motions of the Earth and
Moon account for phenomena on Earth,
including the day, the year, phases of the
Moon, shadows, tides and eclipses.
ESS 2.1.4
Explain the temporal or positional
relationships between or among the
Earth, Sun and Moon (e.g., night/day,
seasons, year, tides).
ESS 2.2.1
Describe the Sun as the principle
energy source for phenomena on
the Earth's surface
ESS 2.3.1
Identify the characteristics and
movement patterns of the planets in
our Solar System and differentiate
between them.
ESS 2.3.2
Explain the affects of gravitational
force on the planets and their
moons.
ESS 2.3.3
Explain why Earth and our Solar System
appear to be somewhat unique, while
acknowledging recent evidence that suggests
similar systems exist in the universe;
ESS 2.3.4
Compare and contrast planets based on
data provided about size, composition,
location, orbital movement, atmosphere, or
surface features (includes moons).
ESS 2.3.5
Explain how gravitational force affects
objects in the Solar System (e.g.,
moons, tides, orbits, satellites).
ESS 2.4.1
Explain how technological advances
have allowed scientists to re-evaluate
or extend existing ideas about the
Solar System.
ESS 3.1.1
Define an astronomical unit as the
distance from the Earth to the
Sun;
ESS 3.1.2
Explain that special units of measure,
such as light years and astronomical
units are used to calculate distances in
space.
ESS 3.2.1
Describe objects such as asteroids,
comets and meteors in terms of their
characteristics and movement patterns.
ESS 3.3.1
Describe the universe as being comprised of
billions of galaxies, each containing many
billions of stars, and explain that there are
vast distances separating these galaxies and
stars from one another, and from the Earth.
ESS 4.1.2
Recognize the importance of technology as it relates to
science, for purposes such as: access to space and
other remote locations, sample collection and
treatment, measurement, data collection, and storage,
computation, and communication of information.
• Science and technology are extremely important for
accessing space and other remote locations, sample
collection and treatment, measurement, data collection,
and storage, computation, and communication of
information. For example, if we didn’t invent rockets,
man would never have made it to the moon. If we did not
invent satellites, we wouldn’t really know what the Earth
looked like, or what certain things happening to the Earth
look like, such as when hurricanes occur. We also have
probes that have cameras on them, that will focus in for
days on a speck of light smaller than the dot on a lower
case “i”, and discover multiple galaxies. Some probes
even go to celestial bodies and collect samples from
their surface. If we did not have technology, we would
never know anything about the world.
ESS 4.2.1
Calculate temperature in degrees
Celsius;
• You can calculate temperature in degrees
Celsius by multiplying the temperature by
nine then dividing that number by five and
adding 32. So say if you have a
temperature of 50°c and times it by 9 you
will get 450, and then you divide it by 5 so
you would get 90, then you add 32 and
you will end up with 120°c.
ESS 4.2.2
Perform calculations using metric
measurements;
ESS 4.2.3
Describe how man uses land based
light telescopes, radio telescopes,
satellites, manned exploration, probes
and robots to collect data.
Geologists work to understand the history of our planet.
The better they can understand Earth’s history the better
they can foresee how events and processes of the past
might influence the future.
Astronomers study objects and phenomena which exist or
have their origin in outer space.
Astronaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight
program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member
of a spacecraft.
Marine biology is the scientific study of living organisms in
the ocean or other marine or brackish bodies of water.
An oceanographer studies the oceans and seas.
Meteorologists study the atmosphere and focus on weather processes
and forecasting in contrast with climatology.
A Climatologist studies weather patterns over a long period of time.
ESS 4.3.1 Social Issue
Provide examples of how creative thinking
and economic need has shaped the way
people use natural materials, such as the use
of metal ores, petroleum, and fresh water.
• Creative thinking and economic need has
shaped the way people use natural
materials, such as the use of metal ores,
petroleum, and fresh water. For example,
people use water as a source of power,
like a water wheel. Petroleum can be used
for gas, like for running a car. Metal ores
can also be used to make structures.
ESS 4.3.2 Social Issues
Explain how to test natural
materials to measure and
compare their properties.
• Ways that you could test minerals to
measure and compare their properties is
by their crystal structure, hardness, color,
streak, luster, density and crystal systems.
For example, you wouldn’t use gold to make
something that needed to be very sturdy,
because gold by itself is soft.
ESS 4.3.1 ENVIRONMENTAL
CHANGE
Explain how technologies can
reduce the environmental impact
of natural disasters.
• Technologies can help reduce the impact
of natural disasters in many ways. For
one, it could help us develop certain
barriers for tsunamis, for example. One of
the biggest ways it could reduce the
impact and the devastation of a natural
disaster is that we could predict when they
would happen, so people could be
warned, and could prepare.
ESS 4.3.2 Environmental
Change
Identify the potential impact of
converting forested land to uses such
as farms, homes, factories, or tourist
attractions.
• If we were to transform forests into farms,
homes, factories and tourist attractions,
we could lose medicines and species that
we never even knew existed that could be
key to a cure for something. Also, because
of trees not being around, there would be
less oxygen. If factories, homes or certain
tourist attractions needed power to run, it
would most likely come from a fossil fuel,
so it would also damage our ozone layer.
ESS 4.4.1
Understand that some scientific jobs/careers
involve the application of Earth Space
science content knowledge and experience in
specific ways that meet the goals of the job.
• Man uses land based light telescopes,
radio telescopes, satellites, manned
exploration, probes and robots to collect
data. For example, we use satellites in
space to take pictures of the Earth. We
use probes and robots to go to
planets/celestial bodies that we cannot go
to, so that we will learn more about those
celestial bodies. We also go to the moon
ourselves, to study the surface and
characteristics of the moon and collect
samples and things like that.