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  • High School

    Earth's Systems

Students who demonstrate understanding can:

Performance Expectations

  1. Develop a model based on evidence of Earth’s interior to describe the cycling of matter by thermal convection. HS-ESS2-3

    Clarification Statement and Assessment Boundary

A Peformance Expectation (PE) is what a student should be able to do to show mastery of a concept. Some PEs include a Clarification Statement and/or an Assessment Boundary. These can be found by clicking the PE for "More Info." By hovering over a PE, its corresponding pieces from the Science and Engineering Practices, Disciplinary Core Ideas, and Crosscutting Concepts will be highlighted.

Science and Engineering Practices

Developing and Using Models

Modeling in 9–12 builds on K–8 experiences and progresses to using, synthesizing, and developing models to predict and show relationships among variables between systems and their components in the natural and designed world(s).

Disciplinary Core Ideas

Crosscutting Concepts

By clicking on a specific Science and Engineering Practice, Disciplinary Core Idea, or Crosscutting Concept, you can find out more information on it. By hovering over one you can find its corresponding elements in the PEs.

Planning Curriculum

Common Core State Standards Connections

ELA/Literacy

  • RST.11-12.1 - Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts, attending to important distinctions the author makes and to any gaps or inconsistencies in the account. (HS-ESS2-3)
  • SL.11-12.5 - Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest. (HS-ESS2-3)

Mathematics

  • HSN-Q.A.1 - Use units as a way to understand problems and to guide the solution of multi-step problems; choose and interpret units consistently in formulas; choose and interpret the scale and the origin in graphs and data displays. (HS-ESS2-3)
  • HSN-Q.A.2 - Define appropriate quantities for the purpose of descriptive modeling. (HS-ESS2-3)
  • HSN-Q.A.3 - Choose a level of accuracy appropriate to limitations on measurement when reporting quantities. (HS-ESS2-3)
  • MP.2 - Reason abstractly and quantitatively. (HS-ESS2-3)
  • MP.4 - Model with mathematics. (HS-ESS2-3)

Model Course Mapping

First Time Visitors

Resources & Lesson Plans

  • More resources added each week!
    A team of teacher curators is working to find, review, and vet online resources that support the standards. Check back often, as NSTA continues to add more targeted resources.
  • Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) Seismic Wave Simulator

    This simulation allows for visualization of earthquake waves traveling through Earth's interior and radiating outward on the surface. It includes a selection of recent large earthquakes that can be chosen by users to view the resulting seismic wa ...

  • IRIS Seismic Monitor

    Seismic Monitor allows you to monitor global earthquakes in near real-time, visit seismic stations around the world, and search the web for earthquake headlines or region-related information. Earthquakes are shown as colored circles, where the size o ...

  • Determining and Measuring Earth's Layered Interior

    In this lesson, students examine seismic evidence to determine that the Earth must have a layered internal structure and to estimate the size of Earth’s core. Students are divided into two teams (theoreticians and seismologists) to test the sim ...

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  •  Earth as a System

    This short video uses animated imagery from satellite remote sensing systems to illustrate that Earth is a complex, evolving body characterized by ceaseless change. Adapted from NASA, this visualization helps explain why understanding Earth as an int...

  •  Using GLOBE Data to Study the Earth System

    In this activity, students are guided through the process of locating and graphing web-based environmental data that has been collected by GLOBE Program participants using actual data collected by students in Pennsylvania and comparing them to their ...

  •  A guide to the energy of the Earth

    This animated video outlines Earth's energy. The video presents a progression from identifying the different energy systems to the differences between external and internal energy sources and how that energy is cycled and used.

  •  Learning to Read the Earth and Sky Ch 4

    Analyzing and Interpreting Data Part, Part 1 -- Graphing

  •  Summary of Divergent Boundaries: Introduction

    The goal of this virtual lab is to explore how plate properties affect different types of formations created at diverging plate boundaries.

  •  Summary of Divergent Boundaries: Advanced

    The goal of this virtual lab is to explore how plate properties affect different types of formations created at diverging plate boundaries.

Planning Curriculum gives connections to other areas of study for easier curriculum creation.