School Curriculum: Earth Science
This page is designed to enable parents to understand what their child should be learning, when they should be learning it, and what degree of mastery the child should have attained (at a median level) by a certain grade level. For Homeschoolers, we hope that this page will serve as a valuable asset in establishing a baseline curriculum. For parents whose children attend public or private schools (or for the inquisitive student) this page should give some guidance as to whether or not the school curriculum and methods are providing students with an adequate standard of education.
What is meant by "Earth Science," why is it important, and how is it approached ? Below is a description of the core discipline and its components, and the answers to why-how-when these components are taught. Earth Science components have median level goals to be attained by the end of Grade 2, by the end of Grade 4, by the end of Grade 6, by the end of Grade 8, and by the end of Grade 12.
This page
does not contain articles for education in this discipline.
For educational articles, go to: Earth
Science: A. Earth’s Properties
and Materials, B. Atmosphere and
Weather, C. Processes that Shape
the Earth, D. How We Study the
Earth
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STANDARD 5.8 (EARTH SCIENCE) ALL STUDENTS WILL GAIN AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE STRUCTURE, DYNAMICS, AND GEOPHYSICAL SYSTEMS OF THE EARTH. |
Descriptive Statement: The study of science should include a study of the planet Earth and its relationship to the rest of the universe. This standard describes what students should know about the composition of the Earth and the forces that shape it.
Strands and Cumulative Progress Indicators
By the end of Grade 2, students:
A. Earth’s Properties and Materials
1. Observe and describe rocks and soil.
B. Atmosphere and Water
1. Identify the sources and uses of water.
2. Recognize that water can disappear (evaporate) and collect on cold surfaces (condense).
3. Describe current weather conditions and recognize how those conditions affect our daily lives.
4. Describe daily and seasonal changes and patterns in the weather.
C. Processes that Shape the Earth
Indicators for this strand are introduced at a higher grade level.
D. How We Study the Earth
1. Record observations that describe the features of the natural world in their local environment.
Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 4, students will:
A. Earth’s Properties and Materials
1. Observe that most rocks and soils are made of several substances or minerals.
2. Observe that the properties of soil vary from place to place and will affect the soil’s ability to support life.
3. Recognize that fossils provide evidence about the plants and animals that lived long ago and the nature of the environment at that time.
B. Atmosphere and Water
1. Recognize that air is a substance that surrounds us, takes up space, and moves around us as wind.
2. Recognize that most of Earth’s surface is covered by water and be able to identify the characteristics of those sources of water.
- oceans
- rivers
- lakes
- underground sources
- glaciers
3. Observe weather changes and patterns by measurable quantities such as temperature, wind direction and speed, and amounts of precipitation.
4. Observe that when liquid water disappears, it turns into a gas (vapor) in the air and can reappear as a liquid when cooled, or as a solid if cooled below its freezing point.
5. Observe that rain, snow, and other forms of precipitation come from clouds, but that not all clouds produce precipitation.
6. Recognize that clouds and fog are made of tiny droplets of water and possibly tiny particles of ice.
C. Processes that Shape the Earth
1. Recognize that some changes of the Earth’s surface are due to slow processes such as erosion and weathering, and some changes are due to rapid changes such as landslides, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes.
2. Recognize that moving water, wind, and ice continually shape the Earth’s surface by eroding rock and soil in some areas and depositing them in other areas.
D. How We Study the Earth
1. Use maps to locate and identify physical features on the Earth.
Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 6, students will:
A. Earth’s Properties and Materials
Reinforce indicators from previous grade level
B. Atmosphere and Water
1. Describe the composition, circulation, and distribution of the world’s oceans, estuaries, and marine environments.
2. Describe and illustrate the water cycle .
C. Processes that Shape the Earth
1. Summarize the process involved in the rock cycle and describe the characteristics of the rocks involved.
D. How We Study the Earth
1. Utilize various tools such as map projections and topographical maps to interpret features of Earth’s surface.
Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, students will:
A. Earth’s Properties and Materials
Reinforce indicators from previous grade level.
B. Atmosphere and Water
1. Describe conditions in the atmosphere that lead to weather systems and how these systems are represented on weather maps.
C. Processes that Shape the Earth
1. Explain how Earth’s landforms and materials are created through constructive and destructive processes.
2. Show how successive layers of sedimentary rock and the fossils contained in them can be used to confirm the age, history, changing life forms, and geology of Earth.
D. How We Study the Earth
1. Utilize data gathered from emerging technologies (e.g., geographic information systems (GIS) and global positioning systems (GPS)) to create representations and describe processes of change on the Earth’s surface.
2. Explain how technology designed to investigate features of the Earth’s surface impacts how scientists study the Earth.
Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 12, students will:
A. Earth’s Properties and Materials
1. Explain the interrelationship of the geosphere, hydrosphere, and the atmosphere.
B. Atmosphere and Water
1. Describe how weather (in the short term) and climate (in the long term) involve the transfer of energy in and out of the atmosphere.
C. Processes that Shape the Earth
1. Use the theory of plate tectonics to explain the relationship among earthquakes, volcanoes, mid-ocean ridges, and deep-sea trenches.
2. Know that Earth is a system in which chemical elements exist in fixed amounts and move through the solid Earth, oceans, atmosphere, and living things as part of geochemical cycles.
3. Recognize that the evolution of life on Earth has changed the composition of Earth’s atmosphere through time.
D. How We Study the Earth
1. Analyze the evidence produced by a variety of techniques that is used to understand changes in the Earth that have occurred over time.
- topography
- fossils
- rock stratification
- ice cores
- radiometric data
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