7th Grade Science Guide

7.2: Changes to Earth 3 Dimensions & Progressions

Unit 3

Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCI)

Science & Engineering Practices ● SEP 2: Developing and Using Models ● SEP 3: Planning and Carrying Out an Experiment ● SEP 4: Analyzing and Interpreting Data ● SEP 6: Constructing Explanations Cross Cutting Concepts ● CCC 1: Patterns ● CCC 7: Stability and Change

● All Earth processes are the result of energy fowing and matter cycling within and among the planet’s systems. This energy is derived from the sun and Earth’s hot interior. The energy that fows and matter that cycles produce chemical and physical changes in Earth’s materials and living organisms. ● Tectonic processes continually generate new ocean sea foor at ridges and destroy old seafoor at trenches. ● Maps of ancient land and water patterns, based on investigations of rocks and fossils, make clear how Earth’s plates have moved great distances, collided, and spread apart. ● The planet’s systems interact over scales that range from microscopic to global in size, and they operate over fractions of a second to billions of years. These interactions have shaped Earth’s history and will determine its future. ● The more precisely a design task’s criteria and constraints can be defned, the more likely it is that the designed solution will be successful. Specifcation of constraints includes consideration of scientifc principles and other relevant knowledge that are likely to limit possible solutions.

K-2

3-5

9-12

● Some events on Earth occur very

● Certain features on Earth can be used to order events that have occurred in a landscape. ● Rainfall helps to shape the land and affects the types of organisms, and gravity break rocks, soils, and sediments into smaller pieces and move them around. ● Earth’s physical features occur in patterns, as do earthquakes and volcanoes. living things found in a region. Water, ice, wind,

● The rock record resulting from tectonic and other geoscience processes as well as objects from the solar system can provide evidence of Earth’s early history and the relative ages of major geologic formations. ● Feedback effects exist within and among Earth’s systems. ● Radioactive decay and residual heat of formation within Earth’s interior contribute to thermal convection in the mantle.

quickly; others can occur very slowly.

● Wind and water change the shape of the land. ● Maps show where

things are located. One can map the shapes and kinds of land and water in any area.

STANDARD 7.2.1 ● 7.2.1 Develop a model of the rock cycle to describe the relationship between energy fow and