Use the science to investigate a real source, explain the evidence, and communicate a defensible conclusion. The guide supplies the actual reading, data, task, and chosen level before the unit begins.
| Strand | Required evidence |
|---|---|
| History, Reading, Writing | Use an approved source in context and a student-authored response. Separate the original evidence from later explanations; do not force a single-hero story. |
| Geography and ethics | Include location, social context, or ethical trade-offs where they genuinely support the scientific question. |
| Elective extensions | Choose additional depth in data, technology, economics, or art. Extensions do not replace the core work. |
| Quantitative science | Use the unit's mathematical lane at the agreed level. Supply units, denominators, and model conditions; required science is assessed as science. |
Integration is reported separately and cannot lower the science grade or block a science demonstration pass. Science and practical criteria determine that pass.
Use the same approved task in both formats. The web guide explains the source, data, assumptions, student work, and evidence checklist; this packet is its portable summary, not a different assignment.
Use the web guide's approved unit assignment.
| Unit | Earth Science big idea | Integration anchor |
|---|---|---|
| 01 Earth’s Structure & Plate Tectonics | The rigid plates ride the flowing asthenosphere; their motion builds and destroys the surface. | Wegener’s continental drift — matching coastlines, fossils, and strata rejected for want of a mechanism, vindicated by seafloor spreading and the magnetic stripes. |
| 02 Minerals & Rocks | Minerals are identified by testable physical properties; the rock cycle recycles them. | James Hutton at Siccar Point and Mohs’ 1812 hardness scale — the birth of the rock cycle and “deep time.” |
| 03 Weathering, Erosion & Soil | Surface processes break rock down and move sediment, building soil over time. | The 1930s Dust Bowl — plowed prairie, drought, and topsoil lost to the wind; pair with The Worst Hard Time. |
| 04 Earth’s History & Geologic Time | Rock layers and radiometric dating record billions of years of Earth history. | The discovery of deep time — from Ussher’s 6,000 years to Patterson’s 1953 dating of Earth at 4.5 billion years. |
| 05 The Atmosphere & Weather | Uneven solar heating drives circulation, pressure systems, and weather. | Robert FitzRoy and the first storm forecasts after the 1859 Royal Charter gale — the telegraph made a national forecast possible. |
| 06 Climate & Climate Change | Earth’s climate has natural cycles; greenhouse gases now drive rapid change. | The Keeling Curve — continuous CO₂ from Mauna Loa (1958), foreshadowed by Eunice Foote in 1856; read the ice-core record. |
| 07 The Hydrosphere | Water cycles through ocean, atmosphere, and land; currents move planetary heat. | Franklin’s 1770 Gulf Stream chart and Maury’s ocean-current maps — reading the sea as a system. |
| 08 Astronomy & Earth in Space | Earth’s motions and place in the solar system explain days, seasons, tides, and eclipses. | The Copernican Revolution — Ptolemy to Copernicus to Galileo, evidence against authority; pair with Galileo’s Sidereus Nuncius. |
Big idea: the rigid outer shell of the Earth is broken into plates that move, reshaping the surface. Anchor: in 1912 Wegener argued the continents were once joined in Pangaea — matching coastlines, fossils, and strata — but he was rejected for fifty years for want of a mechanism, until seafloor spreading and the magnetic stripes supplied it. Question: students reassemble Pangaea and compute plate-motion rates in cm/year. Connection back: this is plate tectonics — and whether the establishment was right to demand a mechanism is the essay students argue.
Math never drives a unit, but earth science uses it constantly — always anchored to the reaction or measurement at the bench. Here is the quantitative skill each unit actually uses, done inside the lab context rather than as a parallel curriculum.
| Unit | Applied math at the agreed level |
|---|---|
| 01 Earth’s Structure & Plate Tectonics | Assigned rates and seismic circles: cm/year, model time, coordinates and bounds. Science criteria 2 and 5; changed-rate transfer. |
| 02 Minerals & Rocks | Assigned density and point counts: measurement bounds and correct denominators. Science criteria 1 and 4; new-card transfer. |
| 03 Weathering, Erosion & Soil | Assigned gradient, horizons and flux: scale, inverse tangent and transport bounds. Science criteria 2–4; new-reach transfer. |
| 04 Earth’s History & Geologic Time | Assigned sequence and decay clock: halving, logarithms, daughter correction and bounds. Science criteria 1 and 2; new-clock transfer. |
| 05 The Atmosphere & Weather | Assigned transect and air parcel: signed gradients, RH, dew point and uncertainty. Science criteria 3 and 5; new-parcel transfer. |
| 06 Climate & Climate Change | Assigned climate records: observed CO2 rates, synthetic anomaly fits/residuals and proxy calibration. Science criteria 1 and 4; new-baseline transfer. |
| 07 The Hydrosphere | Assigned water quantities: freshwater stores, subsection discharge, salt balance and reference heat flux. Science criteria 1 and 2; new-channel/mixing transfer. |
| 08 Astronomy & Earth in Space | Assigned orbital and season models: Kepler periods/bounds, central mass and noon sine projection. Science criteria 1 and 4; new-orbit transfer. |
Students compute the plate-motion rate inside the Pangaea reassembly, the half-life inside the geologic-time lab, the stream discharge inside the stream table. The number always means something because it is attached to a result they produced — never a worksheet detached from the earth science.
Integration is its own strand. Track each unit’s integration level across the year — Developing, Proficient, or Mastery — separate from the science-mastery rubric. Record the evidence reference and date in the final column.
| Unit | Developing | Proficient | Mastery | Evidence / date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 Earth’s Structure & Plate Tectonics | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 02 Minerals & Rocks | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 03 Weathering, Erosion & Soil | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 04 Earth’s History & Geologic Time | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 05 The Atmosphere & Weather | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 06 Climate & Climate Change | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 07 The Hydrosphere | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
| 08 Astronomy & Earth in Space | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ______ |
A student who walks through all eight anchors finishes understanding that earth science is how humans learned to reshape matter, and that every formula on the page was once a discovery someone fought for — the version of the subject a student keeps.