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Use research-based evidence to propose a scientific explanation regarding how the distribution of Earth’s resources such as minerals, fossil fuels, and groundwater are the result of ongoing geoscience processes (e.g., past volcanic and hydrothermal activity, burial of organic sediments, active weathering of rock).
Use research-based evidence to propose a scientific explanation regarding how the distribution of Earth’s resources such as minerals, fossil fuels, and groundwater are the result of ongoing geoscience processes (e.g., past volcanic and hydrothermal activity, burial of organic sediments, active weathering of rock).
Unpacked Content
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Vocabulary
- Natural resources
- Minerals
- Fossil Fuels
- Groundwater
- Geoscience processes
- Distribution
- Extraction
- Depletion
- Water cycle
- Rock cycle
- Plate tectonics
Knowledge
Students know:
- Humans depend on Earth's land, ocean, atmosphere, and biosphere for many different resources.
- These resources are distributed unevenly around the planet as a result of past geoscience processes.
- The water cycle, the rock cycle, and plate tectonics are examples of geoscience processes that distribute Earth's resources.
- The environment or conditions that formed the resources are specific to certain areas and/or times on Earth, thus identifying why those resources are found only in those specific places/periods.
- The extraction and use of resources by humans decreases the amounts of these resources available in some locations and changes the overall distribution of these resources on Earth
- As resources as used, they are depleted from the sources until they can be replenished, mainly through geoscience processes.
Skills
Students are able to:
- Articulate a statement that relates a given phenomenon to a scientific idea, including that ongoing geoscience processes have caused the distribution of the Earth's resources.
- Identify and use multiple valid and reliable sources of evidence to construct a scientific explanation of the phenomenon.
- Use reasoning to connect the evidence and support an explanation of the distribution of Earth's resources.
Understanding
Students understand that:
- The Earth's resources are formed as a result of past and ongoing geoscience processes.
- These resources are distributed unevenly around the planet as a result of past and ongoing geoscience processes.
- The extraction and use of resources by humans decreases the amounts of these resources available in some locations and changes the overall distribution of these resources on Earth.
- Because many resources continue to be formed in the same ways that they were in the past, and because the amount of time required to form most of these resources (e.g., minerals, fossil fuels) is much longer than timescales of human lifetimes, these resources are limited to current and near-future generations. Some resources (e.g., groundwater) can be replenished on human timescales and are limited based on distribution.
Scientific and Engineering Practices
Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
Crosscutting Concepts
Cause and Effect
