Unit ‍Overview‍

In 6th grade, students are introduced to the ideas of using models to explore concepts that occur on large scales and to develop their use of inference to explain phenomena that cannot be always be seen in action. Students are guided to answer the question, "How do the materials in and on Earth’s crust change over time?" Since students were introduced to types of rocks and minerals in elementary grades, they can now begin to explore how these materials change over time by creating models and constructing explanations based on the models.

Standards

Next Generation Science Standards – Middle School (NGSS-MS):

MS-ESS2-1. Develop a model to describe the cycling of Earth’s materials and the flow of energy that drives this process.

Emphasize: the processes of weathering, deformation, and sedimentation

Core idea: All Earth processes are the result of energy flowing and matter cycling within and among the planet’s systems. The energy that flows and matter that cycles produce chemical and physical changes in Earth’s materials (and living organisms).

MS-ESS2-2. Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth’s surface at varying time and spatial scales.

Emphasize: Examples of geoscience processes that include surface weathering and deposition by the movements of water, ice, and wind; processes that shape local geographic features, where appropriate.

Core idea: The planet’s systems interact over scales that range from microscopic to global in size, and they operate over fractions of a second to billions of years. These interactions have shaped Earth’s history and will determine its future. Water’s movements – both on the land and underground – cause weathering and erosion, which change the land’s surface features and create underground formations.

Science and Engineering:

• Develop and use a model to describe phenomena.
• Construct a scientific explanation based on valid and reliable evidence obtained from sources (including the students’ own experiments) and the assumption that theories and laws that describe nature operate today as they did in the past and will continue to do so in the future.

Crosscutting concepts:

• Time, space and energy phenomena can be observed at various scales using models to study systems that are too large or too small.
• Explanations of stability and change in natural or designed systems can be constructed by examining the changes over time and processes at different scales, including the atomic scale.

California Science Standards:

Earth Science Standards:

2a. Students know water running downhill is the dominant process in shaping the landscape, including California’s landscape.

2b. Students know rivers and streams are dynamic systems that erode, transport sediment, change course, and flood their banks in natural and recurring patterns.

Investigation and Experimentation Standards:

7b. Select and use appropriate tools and technology (including calculators, computers, balances, spring scales, microscopes, and binoculars) to perform tests, collect data, and display data.

7c. Construct appropriate graphs from data and develop qualitative statements about the relationships between variables.

7d. Communicate the steps and results from an investigation in written reports and oral presentations.

7e. Recognize whether evidence is consistent with a proposed explanation.

7f. Read a topographic map and a geologic map for evidence provided on the maps and construct and interpret a simple scale map.

7h. Identify changes in natural phenomena over time without manipulating the phenomena (e.g., a tree limb, a grove of trees, a stream, a hillslope).