Foundation Science

Preview of the Earth Science Curriculum

Sample Learning Experiences

View sample learning experiences [pdf]: Teacher Guide and Student Book

Earth Science at a Glance

The two semesters of Foundations Science: Earth Science are designed to be the equivalent of a full-year introductory course in Earth science. The instructional materials, which focus on the complex interactions of Earth’s systems, build on the concepts and skills presented in the first semesters of Foundation Science: Physics and Chemistry.

An overarching idea within this course is the concept that Earth’s systems are dynamic and constantly changing. Students explore changes occurring on a wide range of time and spatial scales, for example, relating the widespread destruction caused by earthquakes and volcanoes in a few moments to the underlying plate tectonics processes occurring on a global scale over millions of years. Students study the complex interactions within and between Earth’s major systems: lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. They learn how scientists study these interactions using increasingly sophisticated technologies to collect and analyze data, looking for patterns that help them better understand how Earth works. The learning experiences also investigate the interactions between humans and Earth’s systems—how people predict and prepare for natural disasters, how they utilize Earth’s natural resources; and how humans act as agents of change, whether by seeking to control the flow in a river system or by altering atmospheric chemistry.

First Semester: Earth Science 1

The first semester introduces students to Earth’s systems, focusing on the hydrosphere and atmosphere. Students explore the sources of freshwater on the continents and the powerful effects of currents in the world’s oceans. They delve into the science of climate and climate change, exploring the factors that affect climate locally and globally and investigating the causes of climate change in Earth’s past.

Learning Experience	Science Concepts	Learning Activities
Course Introduction
1. Introduction: Comparing Earth to Other Worlds	Introduction to Earth’s systems; basic requirements for sustaining life	Students read an excerpt from a science fiction story about Mars colonists and analyze the resources necessary to sustain human populations on this neighboring planet.
Unit 1: Hydrosphere: Water in Earth’s Systems
2: Life’s Blood: Seeking Water from the Earth	Water cycle; surface water, groundwater, assessing and protecting water supplies	Students read a story about a community in Tennessee that ran out of water, and consider how access to plentiful and clean water is critical to human survival. They build their knowledge about how water is obtained by reviewing the water cycle and learning the science behind surface and groundwater supplies. After researching case studies from communities around the world, they get up close and personal, evaluating where their water comes from and whether their supply could be threatened in the future.
3. Rivers of the Sea: Ocean Currents	Global patterns of ocean circulation; how wind and density differences drive ocean currents; global conveyor belt; El Niño	Students read a true story about Thor Heyerdahl, the explorer who set sail across the Pacific in the primitive raft Kon-Tiki to prove a theory. By setting adrift on an ocean current, he sought to show that people from South America could have migrated to Polynesia over 1000 years ago without the benefit of modern engines. Students gather knowledge about the science of ocean currents to decide whether his idea was crazy or had a chance of success.
Unit 2: Atmosphere and Climate
4. Local Connections: Regional Climate	Climate and weather; influence of latitude, atmospheric circulation, proximity to ocean, elevation, land features, and prevailing winds on regional climate	Students start their exploration of climate close to home, learning about the climate in their local area and comparing it to a chosen travel destination. Students learn how climate is measured and how it affects the flora and fauna of a landscape. They investigate key factors that cause climate to vary so much around the world.
5. Making a Case: Global Climate	Energy balance, albedo effect, greenhouse effect, carbon cycle, positive and negative feedback loops	Students read about a community in Alaska that is threatened by global warming and is saying fossil fuel burning is to blame; inhabitants have filed a lawsuit that says energy companies should pay to relocate the town. Students research the factors that influence global climate. They develop exhibitions for the trial jury that describe the science of climate change and specifically address the link between fossil fuel combustion and global warming.
6. The Longest Experiment: Climate Change in Earth’s History	Paleoclimatology, climate proxies, climate change in Earth’s past, Milankovitch cycles, tectonic processes that influence climate, human impact on climate	Students explore two time periods in Earth’s past when climate was very different from today—the warm Cretaceous and a glacial interval of the Pleistocene. Students study evidence—recorded in rocks and ice—that climate has varied through Earth’s history, and explore the factors that have contributed to these changes. They look at evidence that Earth’s climate is changing now and consider the degree to which human activity versus natural factors are contributing to this change.
Course Conclusion
7. Final Challenge: Broadcast From the Future	Synthesis of concepts learned in Earth Science 1	Students use the knowledge they have gained during this course to make predictions about what Earth will be like in the year 2100. They communicate their predictions in a news broadcast from the future.

Second Semester: Earth Science 2

During the second semester of Earth Science, students gain a deeper understanding of Earth’s systems by exploring Earth’s geosphere. They study the interior structure of the planet, and investigate how the planet’s interior and surface are moving and changing. They examine evidence of plate tectonic movement as they investigate volcanic eruptions and earthquakes that have occurred in the western U.S. They explore rock cycle processes and use clues in rocks to determine events that have happened in Earth’s past. After gaining a greater appreciation of Earth’s geosphere, students revisit the solid Earth from a human perspective. They explore how the geosphere provides critical natural resources, and how human use of these resources has affected the balance of Earth’s systems.

The following table describes the course in terms of the concepts that are explored in each learning experience and the activities that are used to help students develop conceptual understanding.

Learning Experience	Science Concepts	Learning Activities
Course Introduction
1: Journey to the Center of the Earth: Exploring Earth’s Interior	Earth’s interior structure and composition, internal sources of heat energy, seismic waves, introduction to plate tectonic theory, driving forces of plate movement	Students begin their exploration of the geosphere by looking down at their feet and wondering what lies below them. If they could dig through the floor, through the foundation of their building, through the soil and rocks, and keep going and going, what would they see? They explore Earth’s internal structure, as well as the movements and changes that occur within the planet that have a profound effect on Earth’s surface. Ultimately, students synthesize their understanding of Earth’s interior by creating a “journey” into the Earth, communicating scientific information about what they would encounter along the way.
Unit 1: Plate Tectonics
2. On Shaky Ground: Understanding Earthquakes	Transform-fault boundaries, earthquakes, physical and computer models	Students read about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and study the relationship of this event to the transform-fault boundary along the west coast of California. Students develop a physical model of the San Andreas fault zone and explore computer models used by scientists to forecast when and where earthquakes will occur.
3. Sleeping Dragons: Subduction Zone Volcanoes	Subduction zones, volcanoes, formation of igneous rocks, field-measurement technologies for volcano monitoring	Students explore the relationship of the Cascade volcanoes in Washington, Oregon, and California to the subduction zone along the Northwest coast, and learn how scientists monitor changes beneath a volcano that may signal an imminent eruption. Ultimately, students use information about the eruptive histories of the Cascade volcanoes, combined with current monitoring data, to assess the risk associated with living near volcanoes such as Mount Rainier.
4. Clues on the Ocean Floor: Divergent Boundaries	Seafloor spreading, paleomagnetism, plate tectonics summary, landforms associated with plate boundaries	Students explore the process of seafloor spreading occurring along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, looking for patterns in maps of earthquake distribution, seafloor topography, ocean crust age, and paleomagnetic data. They pull together what they’ve learned about plate tectonic processes that occur along divergent, convergent and transform plate boundaries.
Unit 2: The Rock Cycle
5. Mississippi Blues: Sedimentary Processes in a Delta	Erosion and deposition, deltaic processes, formation of sedimentary rock	Students explore the ways in which river deltas build new land, reading about the plight of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Students investigate the role the river played in forming the land in Louisiana and why the land beneath New Orleans is sinking now. They think about what can and should be done to keep this city from drowning in the future.
6: A Solid Foundation: Building the Earth’s Crust	The nature of rocks and minerals, rock cycle	Students read about James Hutton, known as the father of geology. They study samples of the rocks and minerals that make up the crust, and learn how to recognize clues that tell them true stories about Earth’s history.
Unit 3: Earth Resources
7: Hidden Treasures in Rocks: Mineral Resources	The geologic processes by which mineral ores are formed; mineral extraction and processing	Students explore the surprising extent to which they rely on Earth’s crust for the materials in the objects around them. Putting themselves in the shoes of mineral prospectors, they gain expertise in the different ways that mineral ores become concentrated within Earth’s crust and contemplate how they would go about finding them.
8: The Mystery of the Rub al Kahli: Energy Resources in Earth’s Crust	Fossil fuel formation, petroleum resources and exploration technologies	Students read about the Rub al Kahli—a desolate desert landscape in Saudi Arabia that overlays one of the most prolific oil reservoirs in the world. Students investigate how oil reservoirs form naturally in Earth’s crust, and how geologists go about finding this precious resource. They then use their new knowledge to figure out why there is so much more oil in Saudi Arabia than there is in the United States.
Course Conclusion
9: A Home Away from Home: Can Terraforming Really Work?	Interactions between Earth’s systems, requirements for sustaining life away from Earth	Students evaluate a basic design for a terraformed planet and use what they’ve learned about Earth’s systems to debate whether it would be possible and realistic for humans to create an Earth-like planet elsewhere.

This outline is subject to change.

EDC: Center for Science Education