Learning Objectives

• Identify the forces that counteract weathering and erosion.

• Describe the most recent theory of mountain-building.

• Construct models to illustrate how folds and faults are formed.

• Explain current scientific ideas about why earthquakes occur.

• Describe how seismographs measure earthquake strength and location.

• Describe different types of volcanic eruptions.

• Identify the locations of past and present volcanoes.

• Infer that volcanoes occur at the edges of plates.

• Describe the origin of volcanoes using the plate tectonics theory.

• Name characteristics that can be used to distinguish one type of rock from another.

• Devise a classification scheme for rocks based on physical properties.

• Distinguish between igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks by using a key.

• Explain how differences in the cooling of igneous rocks affect their structure.

• Recognize the differences between extrusive and intrusive rocks by examining the size of the grains or crystals.

• Infer how an where igneous rocks were formed by examining the size of the grains or crystals.

• Identify possible locations of the deposition of sediments.

• Explain the role of evaporation in the formation of sedimentary rock.

• Explain how the number, size, and shape of sediments can be used as clues to the origins of sedimentary rocks.

• Identify heat and pressure as the agents of metamorphism.

• Explain that metamorphic rocks are usually different in structure and texture from their original form.

• Infer that any one rock type can be changed into another.

• Describe how fossils are formed.

• Identify different fossils types.

• Hypothesize why dinosaurs became extinct.

• Observe and interpret fossilized tracks.

• Explain the concept of relative time.

• Name the specific divisions of the geologic time scale.

• Identify when specific events occurred, based on the geologic time scale.

• Describe how dates in the geologic time scale have been established.

Standards  

Illinois Learning Standards (Middle School)  As a result of their schooling students will be able to:

12E. Know and apply concepts that describe the features and processes of the Earth and its resources.

11A. Know and apply the concepts, principles and processes of scientific inquiry:

National Science Education Standards (5-8)  As a result of their activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop understandings about:

STRUCTURE OF THE EARTH SYSTEM

• Layers:  The solid earth is layered with a lithosphere; hot, convecting mantle; and dense, metallic core.
• Plates:  Lithospheric plates on the scales of continents and oceans constantly move at rates of centimeters per year in response to movements in the mantle. Major geological events, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and mountain building, result from these plate motions.
• Constructive & Destructive Forces:  Land forms are the result of a combination of constructive and destructive forces. Constructive forces include crustal deformation, volcanic eruption, and deposition of sediment, while destructive forces include weathering and erosion.
• Rock Cycle:  Some changes in the solid earth can be described as the "rock cycle." Old rocks at the earth's surface weather, forming sediments that are buried, then compacted, heated, and often recrystallized into new rock. Eventually, those new rocks may be brought to the surface by the forces that drive plate motions, and the rock cycle continues.
• Living organisms have played many roles in the earth system, including affecting the composition of the atmosphere, producing some types of rocks, and contributing to the weathering of rocks.

EARTH'S HISTORY

• Earth History:  The earth processes we see today, including erosion, movement of lithospheric plates, and changes in atmospheric composition, are similar to those that occurred in the past. earth history is also influenced by occasional catastrophes, such as the impact of an asteroid or comet.
• Fossils:  Fossils provide important evidence of how life and environmental conditions have changed.

Benchmarks for Science Literacy  By the end of the 8th grade, students should know that:

• Character of the Planet:  The earth is mostly rock. Three-fourths of its surface is covered by a relatively thin layer of water (some of it frozen), and the entire planet is surrounded by a relatively thin blanket of air.
• Minerals:  Some minerals are very rare and some exist in great quantities, but—for practical purposes—the ability to recover them is just as important as their abundance. As minerals are depleted, obtaining them becomes more difficult. Recycling and the development of substitutes can reduce the rate of depletion but may also be costly.

• Earth’s Interior:  The interior of the earth is hot. Heat flow and movement of material within the earth cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and create mountains and ocean basins. Gas and dust from large volcanoes can change the atmosphere.
• Change in Earth’s Surface:  Some changes in the earth's surface are abrupt (such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions) while other changes happen very slowly (such as uplift and wearing down of mountains). The earth's surface is shaped in part by the motion of water and wind over very long times, which act to level mountain ranges.
• Detail of Rock Cycle:  Sediments of sand and smaller particles (sometimes containing the remains of organisms) are gradually buried and are cemented together by dissolved minerals to form solid rock again.
• Detail of Rock Cycle:  Sedimentary rock buried deep enough may be reformed by pressure and heat, perhaps melting and recrystallizing into different kinds of rock. These re-formed rock layers may be forced up again to become land surface and even mountains. Subsequently, this new rock too will erode. Rock bears evidence of the minerals, temperatures, and forces that created it.
• Detail of Rock Cycle:  Thousands of layers of sedimentary rock confirm the long history of the changing surface of the earth and the changing life forms whose remains are found in successive layers. The youngest layers are not always found on top, because of folding, breaking, and uplift of layers.

Champaign Community Unit School District #4 * Mellon Administrative Center
703 South New Street * Champaign, IL 61820 * 217.351.3800