Earth Science
Earth Science Assignment List
Current work will be at the top, while older work will move toward the bottom of the page. If you are absent or miss class, use this page to print out and complete missing work.
(Dates are approximate and should not be used for accurate deadlines)
Hurricanes 101
12/6-12/10
This week, we are looking at hurricanes. We are investigating the formation of hurricanes and the factors that affect them so that we can prepare for our Natural Disaster Mitigation Proposal debate. Everyone completed a Pear Deck which asked students to think about what they already know about hurricanes and compare it to new information about how hurricanes form. The slides centered around the use of the simulation below where students played with several variables including ocean temperature and atmospheric pressure to try to learn about how they affected the path and strength of a hurricane.
Students were also asked for explanations of the classic "floating candle" demonstration, and asked to find the connection to hurricane formation. Though there are multiple scientific principles at play in the demo, students were asked to find the similarities and differences between the candle and hurricanes. Below is an example (there are many) of the demo done in class.
My Life as a Drip comic strip
11/29--12/03
We are reviewing the water cycle as an interlude between natural disaster topics. Students will be challenged to create a comic strip about a water molecule as it moves through the water cycle. The challenge will be to tell a story that connects randomly assigned "plot points" from a dice rolling activity, using their knowledge of 1) the water cycle and 2) state changes. A focus will be on the state changes of water at a molecular level.
Students are given a brief review of the water cycle. They can refer to their textbook reading, this video, and their comic strip assignment sheet.
Students will be given a slightly more in depth look at the changes in kinetic energy of molecules during state changes. For this, students will take notes in class on a simplified water distillation demonstration and a guided worksheet for using an online lab simulation (PhET Labs, States of Matter.
As usual, all materials mentioned here are posted here in this section.
Earthquake Building Challenge
11/22--11/24
Pics/vids from this year's challenge!
Students participated in the engineering design process by planning, building, testing, and rebuilding structures made to maximize weight capacity and height during an earthquake. Students needed to analyze the point structure to plan the building that could hold the most weight the highest off the ground using only straws and paperclips. Students could purchase extra supplies, prices of which they very much enjoyed haggling over. Their structure then needed to support bean bags and survive a 10 second of an "MMI 6" earthquake.
Students are graded on their planning during and reflection after the engineering design process and how well they worked as a team. The winning structure is pictured below, but
2021_winners.MOV
Alfred Wegener's Tectonic Adventure
11/09--11/16
While Alfred Wegener was not alive when the Plate Tectonic Theory became a scientific foundation, he pioneered the theory that led to it, the Theory of Continental Drift. In fact, Wegener's ideas were ridiculed in the 1920's and 30s by leading geologists. Because Al never got to experience the foundation-rocking effects he had on the field of geology, we took it upon ourselves to vindicate his name and write a newspaper article explaining the evidence that supported his theory.
Students first went on a scavenger hunt on the school grounds, searching for QR codes and even some real specimens of fossils, rocks layers, volcanoes, and earthquakes. Each location on the school property matched up to a global location (see scavenger hunt slideshow). Once inside, students made sense of their findings and provided the reasoning for how their collection of fossils, earthquakes, and volcanoes supported the idea that the continents are, in fact, moving.
Above are the scavenger hunt slideshow and the list of evidence students found outside. Above right is a slideshow about the evidence supporting Plate Tectonics (and Continental Drift.)
Below are student materials for planning and writing their newspaper article, as well as the grading rubric the teacher will use. Also included are links to two online articles that students may find helpful if they are struggling to grasp the concepts in this assignment, summarizing the evidence Wegener used to create the Continental Drift Theory.
Plate Tectonic Boundaries notes
10/28--10/29
Earth's Layers Scale Model
10/26--10/28
Students leaned on their math skills from the previous quarter to create a scale model out of paper, showing the comparative thicknesses of the earth's layers. Essentially, students answered the question, "If the distance to the center of the earth was 1 meter, then how thick would each layer be?"
We broke the earth into 5 layers: Crust, Asthenosphere (upper mantle responsible for plate tectonics), Mantle (below the asthenosphere), Outer Core, Inner Core.
Here are the written notes we took, the slideshow we took them from, and a copy of the template we used to create our 1-meter long scale models.