Earth Science: WA Overview Introduction

Earth Science
Right after completing some safety instructions and administrivia, the class will start to map the school property as an introduction to maps, a key, geological skill.  The first classes focus on skills, such as maps, inquiry-based instruction, and evidence-based reasoning.  (The Biology/Life Science blog has links should your student need ideas organizing a notebook.)

Map the Schoolyard: USGS has a great introductory unit to introduce maps.
http://education.usgs.gov/lessons/schoolyard/MapSketch.html

Project-based Learning or PBLs are an important means to tie seemingly disparate topics into one cohesive idea.  The class will test Fueling the Car of Tomorrow.
http://eng-sci.udmercy.edu/pre-college/alt_fuel_curriculum/files/Teacher%20Curriculum%209-09.pdf

Inductive Models of Thinking:  Rocks
1.  The class will make observations of a group of rock and mineral specimens.
2. Do any of the rocks have layers?  Crystals?  Are the crystals arranged in layers or bands?  Are the crystals similar?
3.  The groups in class will start to sort the specimens.  Why are the rocks within a group similar?  What are the similarities between the groups?  What are the relationships between the groups?
4.  Could a rock in one group form a rock in another group?  Why are there differences in crystal size?  Color?  Arrangement of crystals?  Is there a relationship between a rock and the formation in which it is found?
5.  What characteristics are important in grouping rocks?  What could you conclude about your groups and grouping?

New Set of Rocks:
1. Which reveals more about a rock's origins: texture or mineral composition?
2. How was the rock formed?  What do large crystals tell you about a rock?  What do small crystals tell you about a rock?
3. What would happen to sand on a beach buried by layers of sediment, squeezed and heated?  What type of rock would form?  What if the beach sand melted?
4.  What is the rock's history?  What is the relationship between its coarseness or smoothness and the distance from its source?