Unit 2

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS --- These are the important questions you will be able to answer by the end of the unit!

How do the materials in and on Earth’s crust change over time?

How do people figure out that the Earth and life on Earth have changed over time?

How does the movement of tectonic plates impact the surface of Earth?

How can we use Earth changes to predict past and future events?

Performance Tasks:

• MS-ESS2-1. Develop a model to describe the cycling of Earth's materials and the flow of energy that drives this process.
• MS-ESS3-1. Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how the uneven distributions of Earth's mineral, energy, and groundwater resources are the result of past and current geoscience processes.
• MS-ESS1-4. Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence from rock strata for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth's 4.6-billion-year-old history.
• MS-ESS2-2. Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth's surface at varying time and spatial scales.
• MS-ESS2-3. Analyze and interpret data on the distribution of fossils and rocks, continental shapes, and seafloor structures to provide evidence of the past plate motions.

UNIT OUTLINES

Minerals and Rocks

Moving Earth

Geology

COMMON AND OTHER ASSESSMENTS

Mineral Lab Notebook

Rock Webquest

Rock and Rock Cycle Test

Rock Alternative (RAFT) - MS-ESS2-1

Continental Drift Essay

Plate Motion Research - MS-ESS2-3

Earth Layers Comic Strip

Tectonic Region Case Study - MS-ESS2-2, MS-ESS3-1

Plate Tectonics Test

Geology Activity

Earth Layers - MS-ESS1-4.