Earth Science Rocks!
Earth Science!
Eath Science was one of my favorite sciences to take in high school. I had a 100 in that class for pretty much the whole year. Some of my favorite things to do in Earth science were learning about the different rocks and mineral because we got to do fun hands-on learning with them, and weather. I remember watching a video about Hurricane Katrina and while it was very devastating and sad to watch, the videos from inside the eye were wild as this destructive storm was completely stopped for a short period of time. Over the weekend, I had read chapters 10, 11, and 12 in our textbook Teaching Children Science: A discover approach, by Donald Derosa and Joseph Abruscato, which all pertained to Earth Science. Reading through the chapters brought back many memories. I read about things like the layers of the Earth including the mantel, which is just below the crust where earthquake waves move the fastest, and the core where hot molten metal with a strong gravitational pull lies. I was also refreshed on the different forms of rocks igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. In school, I always found volcanic glass to be one of the coolest igneous rocks! The coolest thing about sedimentary rocks are definitely the fossils! Fossils are formed when minerals replace the hard parts of an animal's body, for example, teeth, skulls, and other bones. Fossils have taught archeologists many things about how long each species of life has been on this Earth for, including humans, dinosaurs, and creatures that predated the dinosaurs. They can tell when these species came in and out of existence through a process called carbon dating. Through this process, scientists look at a number of half-lives a concentration of carbon has gone through in a particular sample.
Earth Science can also help people explore the oceans as well as the land. People can study the ocean floor and its make up of continental shelves and abysses. These lines actually show that the ocean floor is expanding and the continents are slowly moving farther and farther away from each other, which is called continental drift. Because of this expansion and similar rock formation on the east coast of South America and the West Coast of Africa, scientists believe that the continents were all once joined in one massive continent called Pangea. The oceans also provide much-needed resources, like fish, to humans, so it is important to study Earth Science to understand the patterns of the currents that may interfere with fishing.
Like I had mentioned, the study of weather is a major component of Earth Science. Our book talks about the different equipment that meteorologists use to study the weather. One of these tools is a barometer, which measures air pressure. Meteorologists also use wind vanes and anemometers to measure wind direction and speed respectively. Meteorologists also use the satellites we taught about in our lesson to create an accurate forecast by studying the changing conditions in the atmosphere.
Our book then talks about the planets and the universe. As I was reading the chapter, I could tell just how well my colleagues taught their lessons. I was reading along and there wasn't much in that chapter that our class did not teach the four-grade class in their lesson. One thing that was new to me was the term "magnetar." A magnetar is a neutron star with a magnetic field. A neutron star is an extremely dense fragment of a collapsed star.
The next chapter in the books discusses different lesson plan ideas to go along with Earth Science. One of the interesting ones I had seen involved students studying the sky during the day and night and describing what they see. I think this is a very fun activity for the student because it teaches the students to become careful observers in their everyday lives. This activity also allows for an easy homework activity where the students can observe the night sky with a family member. Another interesting lesson idea was the weather prediction lesson. In that lesson the students would study the different equipment that meteorologists use to predict the weather, then they would create one of those technologies to predict the weather themselves. One of the more interesting web quests I saw required the students to create a twenty-minute fill describing a trip through the solar system. I thought this was a great way to get the students to use technology to further their learning. This activity will improve the students' research skills, their writing composition skills, and help them develop a deep understanding of the solar system. There were many, many more ideas to create informative, hands-on lessons in our book that I would love to do with a class one day! For now, I will try to incorporate some of these creative ideas into my unit plan!
Earth Science can also help people explore the oceans as well as the land. People can study the ocean floor and its make up of continental shelves and abysses. These lines actually show that the ocean floor is expanding and the continents are slowly moving farther and farther away from each other, which is called continental drift. Because of this expansion and similar rock formation on the east coast of South America and the West Coast of Africa, scientists believe that the continents were all once joined in one massive continent called Pangea. The oceans also provide much-needed resources, like fish, to humans, so it is important to study Earth Science to understand the patterns of the currents that may interfere with fishing. Like I had mentioned, the study of weather is a major component of Earth Science. Our book talks about the different equipment that meteorologists use to study the weather. One of these tools is a barometer, which measures air pressure. Meteorologists also use wind vanes and anemometers to measure wind direction and speed respectively. Meteorologists also use the satellites we taught about in our lesson to create an accurate forecast by studying the changing conditions in the atmosphere.
Our book then talks about the planets and the universe. As I was reading the chapter, I could tell just how well my colleagues taught their lessons. I was reading along and there wasn't much in that chapter that our class did not teach the four-grade class in their lesson. One thing that was new to me was the term "magnetar." A magnetar is a neutron star with a magnetic field. A neutron star is an extremely dense fragment of a collapsed star. The next chapter in the books discusses different lesson plan ideas to go along with Earth Science. One of the interesting ones I had seen involved students studying the sky during the day and night and describing what they see. I think this is a very fun activity for the student because it teaches the students to become careful observers in their everyday lives. This activity also allows for an easy homework activity where the students can observe the night sky with a family member. Another interesting lesson idea was the weather prediction lesson. In that lesson the students would study the different equipment that meteorologists use to predict the weather, then they would create one of those technologies to predict the weather themselves. One of the more interesting web quests I saw required the students to create a twenty-minute fill describing a trip through the solar system. I thought this was a great way to get the students to use technology to further their learning. This activity will improve the students' research skills, their writing composition skills, and help them develop a deep understanding of the solar system. There were many, many more ideas to create informative, hands-on lessons in our book that I would love to do with a class one day! For now, I will try to incorporate some of these creative ideas into my unit plan!
Rebecca,
ReplyDeleteEarth Science was always one of my favorites as well. I enjoyed learning about earthquakes and the plates in the earth when I was in highschool. I also really enjoyed teaching our class earth science, specifically the earth atmosphere. It was fascinating to learn about the functions of each of the layers!