Summative Assessment
Stratified sediment on the way up to the Chimborazo Refugio in Ecuador
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How old is Earth and how do we know?
How old is Earth and how do we know?
Previous: Asteroids, Comets, Meteors
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Task Overview
Task Overview
Task: Write a three paragraph essay to make a claim about the age, formation and early conditions of the Earth and use evidence from throughout the unit to support your claim. In your essay, you should select the evidence you find most compelling in supporting your claim, and backing it up with complete reasoning. Your eligibility to resubmit hinges upon completing all formatives and meeting all checkpoints. Your formative work is where you are producing evidence for your essay.
Assessment Criteria
Assessment Criteria
This criteria is evaluated in each paragraph individually. You will receive two grades in Skyward for this summative, one being under the benchmark "SEP7" and the other under "NGSS-ESS1.C"
Articulating the explanation of phenomena
Students construct an account of Earth’s formation and early history that includes:
how the Earth formed
early Earth conditions
the relative scarcity of impact craters on Earth.
Evidence,
must come from lessons. No additional research permitted
Students include and describe* the following evidence in their explanatory account:
The age and composition of Earth’s oldest rocks, lunar rocks, and meteorites as determined by radiometric dating;
The composition of solar system objects;
Observations of the size and distribution of impact craters on the surface of Earth and on the surfaces of solar system objects (e.g., the moon, Mercury, and Mars); and
The activity of plate tectonic processes, such as volcanism, and surface processes, such as erosion, operating on Earth.
Reasoning
Students use reasoning to connect the evidence to construct the explanation of Earth’s formation and early history, including why:
radiometric dating can reveal the age of Earth
we can study other planetary surfaces to infer that early Earth conditions
we must study extraterrestrial objects instead of Earth's surface in order determine the age of Earth
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