MS - ESS2 Geoscience Processes and Earth's Surface - FINAL (WND 12-13-13)

Module: Geoscience Processes and Earth’s Surface

DCI: ESS2.A (B) The planet’s systems interact over scales that range from microscopic to global in size, and they operate over fractions of a second to billions of years. These interactions have shaped Earth’s history and will determine its future.

PE: MS-ESS2-2 Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth’s surface at varying time and spatial scales.

Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on how processes change Earth’s surface at time and spatial scales that can be large (such as slow plate motions or the uplift of large mountain ranges) or small (such as rapid landslides or microscopic geochemical reactions), and how many geoscience processes (such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and meteor impacts) usually behave gradually but are punctuated by catastrophic events. Examples of geoscience processes include surface weathering and deposition by the movements of water, ice, and wind. Emphasis is on geoscience processes that shape local geographic features, where appropriate.]

This will be very similar to a high school standard which also emphasizes the work done on the Earth's surface at varying time and spatial scales.  Earth's internal and surface forces are involved in the changing of the Earth's surface.  

We should not ask specifics on these processes, or ask for names of certain processes, but general questions about the "interactions [that] have shaped Earth's history" should be acceptable.

 The focus should be the varying time and spatial scales.  

Possible Question Starters: 

"Which of the following changes to the Earth's surface is most likely to occupy the least amount of space and time?"

-correct answer - chemical reactions taking place deep inside the earth's core

incorrect answer - the rising of mountain ranges to higher elevations

Provide a data table showing gradual change to some process, but rapid changes in a short amount of time (maybe tectonic plate movement?) We can ask - 

"Which of the following conclusions is best supported by the data?

correct answer - changes to the earth's surface can happen gradually, with periods of sudden change

incorrect answer - changes to the earth's surface can only occur very slowly, etc.