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Unit Plan |
Change in our Earth System
Anne E. Jones
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Cambridge, MA |
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AGI, TERC, and their employees do not warrant the completeness, accuracy, appropriateness,
and/or safety of the procedures, materials, and content contained herein.
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Stage 1: Identify Desired Results |
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Unit Description |
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In this unit, students will begin their exploration of the Overarching Understandings through a study of the Geosphere. They will learn how to recognize and interpret the clues that Earth's surface has changed over time. Ultimately, they will put their understanding in action when we venture into the field (upper New York state) and visit five geologically rich sites.
Overarching Understandings include:
- Scientific theories of change are based on physical and theoretical evidence.
- Agents of change can be multiple, interacting and interdependent.
- Rates of change vary from instantaneous to millions of years.
- Issues around humans promoting or hindering change are being debated. Different groups represent different perspectives. |
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Relationship to the Big Ideas in Earth Science: |
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"The Big ideas" 1, 4, 6, 7, 11, 21, 22, 23, 25
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Unit Enduring Understandings: |
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- Scientific theories of change in the Geosphere are based on physical evidence such as rocks, fossils, and land forms, and theoretical evidence such as the Principle of Uniformitarianism and the Law of Superposition.
- Agents of change for the Geosphere include water and glaciers (Hydrosphere), wind (Atmosphere), living organisms e.g. lichens (Biosphere), even kinetic energy and gravity. Together, these agents drive the rock cycle.
- Rates of change in the Geosphere can vary from instantaneous to millions of years.
- Issues around humans changing the Geosphere range from building road ways and trails to damming rivers. Different groups represent different perspectives.
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Unit Essential Questions: |
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- What in the Geosphere has changed and how do you know that it has changed?
- What are the agents of change in the Geosphere and are they related?
- What is the rate of change for the Geosphere?
- Should humans promote or hinder change in the Geosphere?
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What students will need to know and be able to do (knowledge and skills): |
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- Observation is an important tool in understanding theories of change in the Geosphere.
Modeling is an important tool in understanding theories of change in the Geosphere.
References are an important tool in understanding theories of change in the Geosphere.
Clastic sedimentary rocks are evidence of weathering, erosion, deposition, compaction, and cementation.
Grain size is evidence of rate of flow during deposition.
Sorting is evidence of rate of flow during erosion and deposition.
Fossil formation is evidence deposition, compaction, and cementation.
Fossils are evidence of change in land forms.
Fossils are evidence of change in habitat and climate.
Fossils are evidence of change in the form, function and existence of organisms.
Moving water erodes sediment depending on speed and volume.
Water has kinetic energy because of gravity.
Water can weather rocks both mechanically and chemically.
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What do students typically misunderstand? |
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Weathering and erosion are the same process.
Compaction and cementation are the same process.
Sediment is deposited in a "bumpy" way.
All changes in the Geosphere take millions of years.
Fossils can form in all rocks types.
The Geosphere has undergone minor changes and has always looked mostly like it does today. For example, if an ancient ocean once covered New York, the water simply covered the landscape that we see today.
Continental glaciers of the past were made of frozen ocean water. When they melted, the oceans reformed. |
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Stage 2: Determine Acceptable Evidence |
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G |
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What is the Goal of the performance? |
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The goal is to tell the story of how a site in upstate New York has changed over time. |
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What Role does the student assume in the performance? |
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You are a geologist who has been hired by a nearby town. |
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What Audience does the student address? |
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The target audience is the governor, the town board, members of the town, and potential tourists to the site. |
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S |
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What is the Situation for the performance? |
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The situation is that you have been asked to create a web page that documents and explains how the site has changed over time. The town board feels potential tourists will see the web page and will be attracted to the town because of the fascinating geologic history. |
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What Product should be produced? |
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You need to design a portion of the towns web site that will document and explain how the site has changed over time. You will use digital or scanned photographs to document the evidence of change and include explanations for why the evidence supports your theory of change. You will also discuss the agents of change relevant to your site and the relative time scale. |
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What are the Standards for the product? |
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INCLUDES SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION
- Tells the story of how your site changed over time.
- State the evidence and explains why it is evidence.
- Explains processes and how they changed the site.
UNDERSTOOD BY AUDIENCE
- Has an introduction with an assertion and fact, fact, boom.
- Writing is descriptive.
- Stays focused and is not repetitive.
- Uses comparison (models, personification, metaphor.)
- Defines scientific vocabulary and/or gives examples.
- Includes diagrams, photos, and visuals that support the text.
- Uses headings.
- Structures story chronologically.
- Provides a sense of time and duration.
- Proofread
ENGAGING
- Told like a story.
- Uses strong verbs.
- Uses creative adjectives.
- Uses attractive formatting and design of web page. |
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Preconception Survey: |
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Quizzes, Tests, and Academic Prompts: |
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Students are given rock and/or fossil samples. Record observations, consult references and models, develop a theory based on student identified evidence and defend their theory. Students design a "photo-album" for a rock in order to illustrate the stages of rock formation. Students read newspaper/magazine articles on the most recent fossil discoveries. They determine the evidence discovered and explain implication for scientific theory. Students modeled stream environments with stream tables and had to "show" the definition of stream vocabulary like suspension. |
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Other Evidence: |
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Journal entries allow students to respond privately with questions or responses to questions. |
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Stage 3: Plan Learning Experiences, Instruction, and Resources |
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Use WHERETO as a guide to describe the learning experiences, instructional strategies, and resources you will use to help students
address the essential questions of the unit and achieve deep understanding of the big ideas. |
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W
Post Overarching Understandings and Essential Questions. Provide a handout with the Enduring Understandings and relevant knowledge and skills. Propose performance assessment and rubric as a culminating assessment tool for the Geosphere unit.
H
Slides from the trip are used as a hook.
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A situation puzzle will model theories based on evidence.
http://imo2001.usa.unl.edu/pdfs/16-Stories%20with%20Holes1.pdf
Situation puzzle
Students record observations and theories of formation for fossilized ripples marks using a two-column organizer.
http://www.schoolscience.co.uk/content/4/chemistry/findoils/findoilch2pg2.html
Ripple marks model and information
http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/teaching_techniques/two.html
Explanation of a two-column organizer
Use a rubber band ball as a model for sedimentary rocks. Pass the ball around to students. Whomever has the ball makes one observation. After a number of observations, switch to theories of formation. If students have background knowledge for sedimentary rock formation, switch to how the model is like and unlike sedimentary rocks.
http://www.fi.edu/fellows/fellow1/oct98/create/sediment.htm
Sedimentary rock information
Students record observations and theories of formation for sandstone using a two-column organizer.
Model sedimentary rock formation with crayons.
http://library.thinkquest.org/j002289/rcycleact.html?tqskip1=1&tqtime=0813
Crayon model investigation
http://www.nycenet.edu/dis/mst/rocks/handout3.html
Crayon model post-investigation activity
Students will sieve sediment, weigh 5 grams of each grain size, and time how long it takes each size to move through 1000 mL of water. Based on data from this investigation and observations of siltstone, students will record observations and theories of formation using a two-column organizer.
Students will investigate grain size deposition and rate of flow using models of stream environments called stream tables. Based on data from this investigation, students record observations and theories of formation for conglomerate using a two-column organizer.
http://maps.unomaha.edu/maher/geo101/tablea.html
Stream tables
http://earthsci.org/teacher/basicgeol/sed/sed.html#sedimentary
Sedimentary rock formation
Textbook reading on fossil formation using a two-column organizer followed by a Venn diagram for sedimentary rock formation and fossil formation.
http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/actbank/tvenn.htm
Explanation of Venn Diagrams
Read article "Grandma, what long claws you have" and identified physical evidence, theoretical evidence and explained the proposed theory.
http://www.discover.com/aug_02/breakclaws.html
The article "Grandma, what long claws you have."
Students given references and a sample of Oriskany Sandstone with Brachiopod fossils in it. They had to complete a two-column organizer with observations and theories of formation, propose a theory of change, list questions that are important to find answers, list relevant information from background knowledge and references, identify physical and theoretical evidence, and explain why the evidence supports their theory.
http://www.earth.rochester.edu/ees207/Brachiopoda/hardman_brach5.html
Brachiopod reference
http://www.union.edu/PUBLIC/GEODEPT/hollocher/sciencelabs/Labs/helderberg/helderberg.htm
Oriskany Sandstone reference: section on the Helderberg Escarpment
http://www.earth.rochester.edu/ees207/Eastern_Transect/senecastone.html
Oriskany Sandstone reference with brachiopod info and pictures
http://www.eifelperlen.de/Fossilien/Brachiopoden/Hipparionyx/Hipparionyx.htm Brachiopod info
http://www.geocities.com/arturpaleozoico/paleobraqstr.html drawing of Hipparionyx Brachiopod
R
Reflect on what changes have occurred in the Connecticut River Valley and try to visualize what the Connecticut River looked like in the past. Look at artists interpretations of these changes and analyze for scientific accuracy.
E
At the conclusion of this unit, students travel to upper New York state where they visit the very sites that they have learned about through slides, maps, visualizations, and text. Students will answer the Overarching Questions for each site during the trip. They will photograph evidence of change and defend theories of change over time for each site.
Resouces located by teachers and students:
http://info.hartwick.edu/geology/work/vft-so-far/overview.html
Excellent and sadly, currently inactive. Hopefully they will repost it.
Richard Little "Dinosaurs, dunes, and drifting continents: the geology of the connecticut valley; 2nd edition"
www.bio.umass.edu/biology/conn.river/geology.html
Earth history of Connecticut River Valley, Paleozioc to date.
Gregory Walsh "A not quite forgotten lake: Glacial lake Hitchcock was part of our alnd for at least 4,000 years." in NATURE NEW ENGLAND ISSUE #5 JAN/FEB 2001
http://www.union.edu/PUBLIC/GEODEPT/hollocher/sciencelabs/Labs/helderberg/helderberg.htm
John Boyd Thatcher State Park description of all layers.
http://geollab.jmu.edu/vageol/vahist/catskill.html
Catskill mountains and delta formation [Hamilton Shales]
http://csmres.jmu.edu/geollab/vageol/vahist/16pghisH.html
On the right side is a link section with the different orogenies. Go to Devonian Acadian Orogeny.
http://earth.rice.edu/mtpe/cryo/cryosphere/topics/ice_age.html
Some text and an animation of the glaciers [receding].
http://www.wesleyan.edu/ctgeology/Glacial/GlacialGeology.html
Ice age, Laurentide Ice Sheet text and diagram
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/cambrian/cambtect.html
Diagram of continents during the Cambrian
http://geology.er.usgs.gov/paleo/geotime.shtml
Time line of time periods, names and dates
http://www.usd.edu/esci/figures/158331.JPG
Static diagrams of uplift, rifting, sea-floor spreading
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