Plate Tectonics and Earth's Structure
1. Plate tectonics explains important features of the Earth's surface
and major geologic events.
As the basis for understanding this
concept, students know:
a. the fit of the continents, location of earthquakes,
volcanoes, and midocean ridges, and the distribution
of fossils, rock types, and ancient climatic zones
provide evidence for plate tectonics.
b. the solid Earth is layered with cold, brittle
lithosphere; hot, convecting mantle; and dense,
metallic core.
c. lithospheric plates that are the size of continents and
oceans move at rates of centimeters per year in
response to movements in the mantle.
d. earthquakes are sudden motions along breaks in the
crust called faults, and volcanoes/fissures are locations
where magma reaches the surface.
e. major geologic events, such as earthquakes,
volcanic eruptions, and mountain building result from
plate motions.
f. how to explain major features of California geology in
terms of plate tectonics (including mountains, faults,
volcanoes).
g. how to determine the epicenter of an earthquake
and that the effects of an earthquake vary with its size,
distance from the epicenter, local geology, and the type
of construction involved.
Shaping the Earth's Surface
2. Topography is reshaped by weathering of rock and soil and by the
transportation and deposition of sediment.
As the basis for
understanding this concept, students know:
a. water running downhill is the dominant process in
shaping the landscape, including California's
landscape.
b. rivers and streams are dynamic systems that erode
and transport sediment, change course, and flood their
banks in natural and recurring patterns.
c. beaches are dynamic systems in which sand is
supplied by rivers and moved along the coast by wave
action.
d. earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, and
floods change human and wildlife habitats.
Heat (Thermal Energy) (Physical Science)
3. Heat moves in a predictable flow from warmer objects to cooler
objects until all objects are at the same temperature.
As a basis for
understanding this concept, students know:
a. energy can be carried from one place to another by
heat flow, or by waves including water waves, light and
sound, or by moving objects.
b. when fuel is consumed, most of the energy released
becomes heat energy.
c. heat flows in solids by conduction (which involves no
flow of matter) and in fluids by conduction and also by
convection (which involves flow of matter).
d. heat energy is also transferred between objects by
radiation; radiation can travel through space.
Energy in the Earth System
4. Many phenomena on the Earth's surface are affected by the
transfer of energy through radiation and convection currents.
As a
basis for understanding this concept, students know:
a. the sun is the major source of energy for phenomena
on the Earth's surface, powering winds, ocean
currents, and the water cycle.
b. solar energy reaches Earth through radiation, mostly
in the form of visible light.
c. heat from Earth's interior reaches the surface
primarily through convection.
d. convection currents distribute heat in
the atmosphere and oceans.
e. differences in pressure, heat, air movement, and
humidity result in changes of weather.
Ecology (Life Science)
5. Organisms in ecosystems exchange energy and nutrients among
themselves and with the environment.
As a basis for understanding
this concept, students know:
a. energy entering ecosystems as sunlight is
transferred by producers into chemical energy through
photosynthesis, and then from organism to organism in
food webs.
b. over time, matter is transferred from one organism to
others in the food web, and between organisms and
the physical environment.
c. populations of organisms can be categorized by the
functions they serve in an ecosystem.
d. different kinds of organisms may play similar
ecological roles in similar biomes.
e. the number and types of organisms an ecosystem
can support depends on the resources available and
abiotic factors, such as quantity of light and water,
range of temperatures, and soil composition.
Resources
6. Sources of energy and materials differ in amounts, distribution,
usefulness, and the time required for their formation.
As a basis for
understanding this concept, students know:
a. the utility of energy sources is determined by factors
that are involved in converting these sources to useful
forms and the consequences of the conversion
process.
b. different natural energy and material resources,
including air, soil, rocks, minerals, petroleum, fresh
water, wildlife, and forests, and classify them as
renewable or nonrenewable.
c. natural origin of the materials used to
make common objects.
Investigation and Experimentation
7. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and
conducting careful investigations.
As a basis for understanding this
concept, and to address the content the other three strands, students
should develop their own questions and perform investigations.
Students will:
a. develop a hypothesis.
b. select and use appropriate tools and technology
(including calculators, computers, balances, spring
scales, microscopes, and binoculars) to perform tests,
collect data, and display data.
c. construct appropriate graphs from data and develop
qualitative statements about the relationships between
variables.
d. communicate the steps and results from an
investigation in written reports and verbal
presentations.
e. recognize whether evidence is consistent with a
proposed explanation.
f. read a topographic map and a geologic map for
evidence provided on the maps, and construct and
interpret a simple scale map.
g. interpret events by sequence and time from natural
phenomena (e.g., relative ages of rocks and
intrusions).
h. identify changes in natural phenomena over time
without manipulating the phenomena (e.g., a tree limb,
a grove of trees, a stream, a hillslope).