Unpacked Content
Scientific and Engineering Practices
Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
Crosscutting Concepts
Patterns
Knowledge
Students know:
- Different rock layers found in areas can show either marine fossils or land fossils.
- Ordering of rock layers (e.g. layer with marine fossils found below layer with land fossils).
- Presence of particular fossils (e.g., shells, land plants) in specific rock layers as evidence of Earth's changes over time.
- The occurrence of events (e.g., earthquakes) due to Earth forces.
Skills
Students are able to:
- Observe evidence from rock patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time.
- Identify evidence from rock patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time.
- Articulate and describe from evidence patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time.
- Use reasoning to connect the evidence to support the explanation including the identification of a specific pattern of rock layers and fossils.
Understanding
Students understand that:
- Local, regional, and global patterns of rock formations reveal changes over time due to earth forces, such as earthquakes. The presence and location of certain fossil types indicate the order in which rock layers were formed.
Vocabulary
- Evidence
- Patterns
- Rock Formations
- Fossils
- Rock Layers
- Landscape
- Marine fossils
