Unpacked Content
Scientific and Engineering Practices
Analyzing and Interpreting Data
Crosscutting Concepts
Cause and Effect
Knowledge
Students know:
- The components and basic interactions of Earth's systems.
- The foundation for Earth's global climate systems is the electromagnetic radiation from the sun, as well as its reflection, absorption, storage, and redistribution among the atmosphere, ocean, and land systems, and this energy's reradiation into space.
- There are various factors that alter the Earth's surface, including but not limited to: conduction, convection, reflection, absorption, erosion, deposition, and greenhouse gases.
Skills
Students are able to:
- Analyze data using tools, technologies, and/or models in order to make reliable scientific claims about how a single change on Earth's surface may cause changes to other Earth systems.
- Analyze data to describe a mechanism for the feedbacks between two of Earth's systems and whether the feedback is positive or negative, increasing (destabilizing) or decreasing (stabilizing) the original changes.
- Compare and contrast various types of data sets to examine consistency of measurements and observations, and acknowledge how variation or uncertainty in the data (e.g., limitations, accuracy, any bias in the data resulting from choice of sample, scale, instrumentation, etc.) may affect the interpretation of the data.
Understanding
Students understand that:
- A single change to the Earth's surface can cause changes to other Earth systems as a result of the dynamic and interacting nature of these systems.
- Earth's systems, being dynamic and interacting, cause feedback effects that can increase or decrease the original change.
Vocabulary
- soil erosion
- hydrosphere
- geosphere
- cryosphere
- atmosphere
- biosphere
- deposition
- conduction
- convection
- reflection
- absorption
- feedback (positive or negative)
- tectonic plates
- catastrophic events (natural and human-caused) — volcano, mudflow, earthquake, Tsunami, flooding, drought, forest fire, oil spills, coral bleaching
