Earth Materials in Our Lives - Earth Materials in Our Lives - EARTH SCIENCE WEEK
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Earth Materials in Our Lives
Earth
Earth Science ActivityMaterials in Our
Calendar, 2020-2021 Lives
School Year
EARTH SCIENCE WEEK www.earthsciweek.org
Earth Science Week 2020 • American Geosciences Institute • www.americangeosciences.org
Geoscience All Around
W here can you find Earth materials? In every part of your life. Raw materials are essential to
food, clothing, medicine, buildings, employment, manufacturing, industry, transportation,
energy, recycling, and more.
That’s why Earth Science Week 2020 focuses on the theme “Earth Materials in Our Lives,” raising
awareness of the many ways that raw materials impact humans — and the ways human activity
impacts these materials — in the 21st century. The celebration engages young people and others
in exploring this theme through learning resources and activities.
Help promote understanding of humans’ complex interactions with the Earth materials of our
geosphere (earth), hydrosphere (water), atmosphere (air), and biosphere (living things). Visit the
Earth Science Week website (www.earthsciweek.org). Check out new links to educational materials
and information. Engage young people and others in the vital role they can play in Earth science.
And keep learning about the geosciences throughout the school year. Use this calendar, which
features education resources, important geoscience dates, and exciting academic activities.
Connect with geoscience learning all year long!
Images ©iStockphoto.com ©Shutterstock.com. This page, clockwise from bottom
Geoff Camphire left: ©Shutterstock/ChrisMilesPhoto; ©Shutterstock/Andresr; ©Shutterstock/Creativa;
©Shutterstock/MonkeyBusinessImages; ©iStock/manonallard; ©iStock/SerrNovik. Cover:
Associate Director, Communications center: ©iStock/vgajic. Side images clockwise from top right: ©Shutterstock/kawinnings;
©iStock/lrescigno; ©iStock/kozmoat98; ©Shutterstock/Darwel; ©iStock/Alexey Rezvykh;
American Geosciences Institute ©iStock/GaryKavanagh; ©iStock/sergeyryzhov; ©iStock/Helga Miller.
Earth Science Week Is for You
T his year, you’re invited to join the tens of millions of participants in all 50 states
and nations worldwide who are celebrating Earth Science Week. Now in its
23rd year, this exciting event has grown steadily in momentum and participation
since the American Geosciences Institute held the first Earth Science Week in 1998.
Every year, people in schools, workplaces, Whether you are a faculty member, student, www.earthsciweek.org
civic centers, and elsewhere celebrate parent, geoscientist, or ordinary citizen, you can
Earth Science Week to help build public play a leading role in Earth Science Week. On How can you get involved? Explore
understanding and appreciation of the Earth the event’s website at www.earthsciweek.org, the Earth Science Week website at
sciences, promote recognition of the value you’ll find ideas and tips for planning activities www.earthsciweek.org. You’ll find
of Earth science research, and encourage at your school or workplace, along with a host of tools designed to make
stewardship of the planet. Earth Science contact information for geoscience resources your event experience easy, fun,
Week serves the geoscience community by: in your area where you can work with local and rewarding!
geoscientists to plan activities.
• giving students new opportunities to On the website, you’ll see a list of tips
discover the Earth sciences, In addition, this calendar features a variety of to help you share your Earth science
• highlighting the contributions made by exciting activities that you can conduct — in knowledge with young people, lead
the geosciences to society, the schoolyard, at home, or elsewhere in the an excursion, or attend an event in
community — to explore the theme “Earth your area: A planning checklist, tips
• publicizing the message that Earth Materials in Our Lives.” This year’s theme for fundraising, recommendations for
science is all around us, focuses on the many ways that raw materials working with the news media, ideas
impact humans, and vice versa, today. for events, educational activities,
• encouraging responsible stewardship of ways to get official recognition,
the planet through an understanding of Let us know how you are planning downloadable logos and images,
Earth processes, to celebrate! Send us an email at kit ordering information, a map of
info@earthsciweek.org. Celebrate Earth potential partners and activities near
• providing a forum where geoscientists can Science Week: October 11–17, 2020! you, and much more.
share their knowledge and enthusiasm
about the Earth and how it works, and To stay up-to-date on the latest
CHECK THE DATE developments and upcoming
• making learning about Earth science fun! Please independently confirm the dates of activities, subscribe to the Earth
any geoscience events in which you plan to Science Week Update electronic
Top to bottom: Artwork by 2019 ESW Contest finalist Ares Bandebo- participate. Due to the COVID-19, some events
Cambra; Winning photo in the 2019 ESW Contest by Tonya Boone.; scheduled before the printing of this calendar
newsletter at www.earthsciweek.org.
Participants in the 2019 USGS Take Your Kids to Work Day, credit:
may have been rescheduled or reformatted as Check it out!
AGI, background by NPS; Participants in the 2019 National Fossil
Day at the Grand Canyon, credit: AGI, background by NPS. “virtual meetings” since that time.
August 2020
LEARNING ACTIVITY:
Nature’s Water Filter
S
GRADES 6-8 oil is a filter that helps maintain a clean over the gravel/floatie mixture. Observe. purple, so the blue dye was pulled out
environment and safe drinking water. Discuss: by the soil. Why?
MATERIALS • Did the floaties end up in the bottom 6 Opposite charges attract and like charges
• 4 3-oz clear solo cups When rain falls on a soil surface, or when cup? Why, or why not? repel. The smallest soil particles are clay,
• 4 5-oz clear solo cups (with contaminated water is introduced to a soil • What is this type of filtration? which have a negative charge. If the red
3–5 small holes in the surface, it infiltrates into the soil. As water 2 Ready to explore chemical filtration? dye goes through the soil, it must also
bottom of each cup) moves downward, the soil acts as a natural Create three more cups — one with fine have a negative charge; the blue dye has a
• 4 funnels water filter, removing harmful contaminants sand, one with topsoil, and one with positive charge which attracts and binds it
• Play sand and delivering clean water to rivers, lakes, and potting soil or crushed peat moss. to the clay (sorption). Discuss:
• Topsoil underground water reservoirs called aquifers. 3 Mix 0.5 g grape drink powder into 1 liter • As more of the drink mix is poured
• Planting mix or peat moss of water. through the soil, does the water in the
• Fine gravel Two types of filtration occur during this 4 Slowly pour 50 ml grape drink into each of bottom cup get progressively more
• Grape drink mix packet, e.g., process — physical and chemical. Physical the four cups. For each cup, observe and purple? Why? The clay in the soil has
Kool-Aid® filtration happens when large particles are record what happens: reached its capacity to capture the
• “Floaties” such as leaves, tea physically prevented from traveling through • What color is the grape drink that goes positively charged blue ions.
leaves, or grass clippings small soil pores and are therefore removed into each cup? • Did the water in the sand change color?
• Water from water. Chemical filtration happens when • What color is the water that collects in Why or why not? Likely, it stayed purple,
• Pen and paper for recording contaminants dissolved in water are attracted each of the bottom cups? which means that there is not any clay
and held to the soil itself. This process is • Is the color of the water the same in the in it to attract the blue dye. What about
called sorption. three cups? the gravel?
• How much time does it take for water to
This activity demonstrates how soil acts as a drain out of the top cup? Supplemental materials, videos,
physical and chemical filter for contaminants. 5 Set aside the bottom cups (keep the water and worksheets are available
in them). Pour the grape drink mix into at www.soils4teachers.org/esw.
PROCEDURE the gravel a second time and collect the
For the teacher: Before doing this activity, water in a new cup. Repeat the process
visit www.soils4teachers.org/esw and review three times for the sand and six times for NGSS CONNECTIONS
the set-up video. To set the stage for the the soil, and collect the water in new cups • Science and Engineering Practices —
following activity, play the “Soils Clean and each time. Observe and record: Analyzing and Interpreting Data
Capture Water” video for students. • Is the color different for the gravel cup • Disciplinary Core Ideas — Earth Materials
Source: Soil Science Society of 1 Ready to explore physical filtration? Fill a on the second try? and Systems
America. Adapted with permission. 5-oz cup half-full of gravel. Add “floaties” • What about for the sand and topsoil? • Cross-Cutting Concepts —
Credit for the lesson plan, activity, and video to the top. Put the cup over the funnel. • Has the water in one of the cups turned Cause and Effect: Mechanism
belongs to Drs. Clay Robinson, Michelle
Blumer, and SSSA. Slowly pour about 100 ml (3 oz) water red? Why? Blue and red dyes make and Explanation
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
1
Happy Birthday!
Henry Darwin Rogers, American
Structural Geologist, Contributed
to the Theory of Mountain
Building, Born 1808
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Happy Birthday!
Johann Gottlob Lehmann, Did You Know?
German Geologist Noted Happy Birthday! U.S. Space Shuttle Endeavour
for Fundamental Work in Neil Armstrong, American Astronaut Barbara Morgan the
Stratigraphy, Published the First Astronaut, the First Man to Walk First Educator to Safely Reach
Friendship Day Geologic Profile, Born 1719 on the Moon, Born 1930 Space, 2007
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Did You Know?
The First Three Fossil Bones of Happy Birthday!
“SUE” Tyrannosaurus rex Skeleton Edward W. Gifford, American
Discovered by Sue Hendrickson, Self-Taught Anthropologist and
1990 Archaeologist, Born 1887
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
Did You Know? Did You Know?
Hurricane Camille (Category 5) Florissant Fossil Beds National
Strikes Mississippi, Louisiana Monument, Renowned for Insect
and Virginia, 1969 Fossils, Authorized 1969
23 24 Did You Know? 25 26 27 28 29
Hurricane Andrew (Category 5)
Hits Florida and Louisiana, 1992
Did You Know?
U.S. Challenger
Astronaut Guion Did You Know? Did You Know?
Bluford Becomes First Hurricane Katrina (Category 5) Colonel Edwin Drake Drills
Black Astronaut Strikes Florida, Later Louisiana, First U.S. Oil Well in Titusville,
in Space, 1983 2005 Pennsylvania, 1859
30 31
American Geosciences Institute | www.americangeosciences.org August 2020
September 2020 Celebrate Minerals Day Next Month
Visit the Minerals Day website at www.earthsciweek.org/
LEARNING ACTIVITY: minerals-day to learn how you can tap educational resources to
Change Over Time
celebrate the first-ever Minerals Day during Earth Science Week
in October 2020!
F
GRADES 4-12 rom very early times, humans have used Earth materials around PROCEDURE
them to make the objects they needed. These objects included 1 Look around your home and make a list of common objects
MATERIALS tools, weapons, figurines, vessels, ornaments and many others. that are likely to have been around 70 or 80 years ago. (Think
• Paper and pen for recording Resources for materials are either mined (minerals) or grown. about food containers and packaging, toys, tools, utensils, lights,
• Computer or cell phone with communication devices, etc.)
internet connection In fact, these materials played such an important role in humans’ lives
• Pictures of objects from that early archaeological periods were named for them. First there was 2 Ask an older person you know if he or she would be willing to talk
different eras the Stone Age, followed by the Bronze Age, then the Iron Age. The with you about how materials and objects have changed over
discovery of fire enabled humans to combine metals to make stronger time. You may be able to do this in person, on the telephone, in
and more shapeable materials. As people discovered more about writing, or through an internet connection.
the properties of metals and other materials, they were able to make
objects that were more sophisticated and more versatile. 3 Ask your interviewee about the decades in which he or she grew
up. Record when this time was. Then ask the interviewee about the
These discoveries have continued in modern times. The materials materials that household objects are made from, both now and
used to make objects in the 1940s and 1950s are, in many cases, very in the past. What were the advantages in the older materials? The
different from the materials used today to make the same objects. disadvantages? How do these materials compare with what is used
With a little research, you can find out how objects and their materials to make the same objects now? Record this information.
have changed over time.
4 Make a table showing how the materials have changed over your
interviewee’s lifetime. Use the internet to research both the old and
the new materials. Include this information in your table as well.
5 Review your findings. What new discoveries in materials have
changed the way objects are made? How do the advantages and
disadvantages of each type of material compare? What happens
to the materials used to make the objects when the object is
thrown away?
The design of and materials used for
NGSS CONNECTIONS
many common objects have changed • Science and Engineering Practices — Obtaining, Evaluating, and
Source: Adapted with permission by over time. Communicating Information
the Mineralogical Society of America
from AGI’s Investigating Earth
Image credits: All Wikimedia Commons. Left
to right: Wilson Wong; Tomasz Sienicki; FEMA/
• Disciplinary Core Ideas — Earth’s Materials and Systems
Systems. Bill Koplitz • Cross-Cutting Concepts — Structure and Function
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
1 2 3 4 5
Protect Your Groundwater Day
Sept. 4–7, 2020:
Did You Know? Geoscience Event:
Unnamed Hurricane 39th NABG Annual Technical
(Category 5) Conference, National Association
Batters Florida Keys, 1935 of Black Geoscientists
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Happy Birthday!
Stephen Jay Gould,
U.S. Paleontologist and
Evolutionary Biologist,
Labor Day Born 1941 Patriot Day
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
World Water Monitoring Day
Rosh Hashanah Begins
Sept. 15–20, 2020:
(Sundown)
Geoscience Event:
63rd AEG Annual Meeting, Sept. 18–27, 2020:
Did You Know? Association of Environmental International Day for the Geoscience Event:
Citizenship Day
Hurricane Ike (Category 4) & Engineering Geologists, Preservation of the Flagstaff Festival of Science,
Strikes Texas, 2008 Portland, Oregon Ozone Layer Constitution Day Flagstaff, Arizona
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
Autumnal Equinox
Did You Know? Did You Know?
Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, Hurricane Rita (Category 5)
Containing World’s Most Active Batters Texas and Louisiana,
Rosh Hashanah Ends Volcano, Established 1961 2005 National Public Lands Day
27 28 29 30
Yom Kippur ends
Sept. 28– Oct. 1, 2020:
Geoscience Event:
AAPG International Conference
and Exhibition, American
Yom Kippur begins Association of Petroleum
(sundown) Geologists, Madrid, Spain
American Geosciences Institute | www.americangeosciences.org September 2020
October 2020
LEARNING ACTIVITY:
Minerals Under Your Roof
D
GRADES 3-8 id you know that many of the supplies You Found a Pencil!
in your classroom are made from Earth
MATERIALS materials that are mined from solid A pencil contains three types of Earth
• Computer with Earth? What can you find that you think may have materials: graphite, clay, and aluminum.
internet access been mined? Graphite-bearing schist.
Graphite: A “core” of the mineral graphite Mark Carter/USGS
This activity can be done in small teams as a contest makes up the writing material of a pencil
or with the whole class, depending on grade level. and is surrounded by a tube of wood that
In this activity, you will make a pile of items you can be sharpened into a point. Graphite is
I’M MADE FROM think may have come from the solid Earth. You can a very soft mineral that rubs off easily onto
EARTH MATERIALS! then use U.S. Geological Survey resources to trace paper and is the crystalline form of carbon.
#classroomscavengerhunt
the items back to their source within the Earth and It occurs naturally in metamorphic rocks
#madefromearthmaterials
understand how they are formed. such as marble, schist, and gneiss.
PROCEDURE Clays: Clay minerals (such as bentonite A microscopic image of dickite
1 Briefly discuss mining. How do people extract or kaolin) are used in pencils to help the clay particles.
Pencil Earth materials from the solid Earth? What graphite stick together. Clay minerals are Howard May/USGS
Contains Earth Materials: products are made from mined materials? composed of thin sheets of Al, Si, and O and
graphite, clay, aluminum form in the presence of water.
Sources: graphite
2 Look around the classroom. Make a pile of
(metamorphic rocks), clay
(sediments and sedimentary objects you think might be made from mined Aluminum Ore (Bauxite): A small piece
rocks), aluminum (aluminum materials. For objects unsafe to lift, print out and (ferrule) of aluminum metal is used at the
ore aka bauxite, Al2O3) affix copies of the “I’m made from” label at left. end of a pencil to secure the eraser. Bauxite
#madefromearthmaterials is a heterogeneous (mixed) material made
@USGS_YES
3 Visit www.usgs.gov/scavengerhunt online up of aluminum hydroxide minerals, plus
for an answer key and to learn more about the various types of silica, iron oxides, titanium, Aluminum ore, also known as bauxite.
mined materials that go into many classroom aluminosilicate, and other impurities. Scott Horvath/USGS
objects. Consider, for example, an ordinary pencil.
Explore each material’s pathway from Earth to
final product through a group discussion, team NGSS CONNECTIONS
presentations, or with labeled artwork. • Science and Engineering Practices — Constructing Explanations and
Designing Solutions
Source: U.S. Geological Survey. Learn additional information at www.usgs.gov/ • Disciplinary Core Ideas — Natural Resources
Adapted with permission. scavengerhunt. • Cross-Cutting Concepts — Cause and Effect
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
1 2 3
Oct. 3–6, 2020:
Geoscience Event:
AIPG National Conference,
American Institute of Professional
Geologists, Sacramento,
California
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Oct. 5–7, 2020:
Geoscience Event: Happy Birthday!
SPE Annual Technical Conference Nevil Maskelyne, English
and Exhibition, Society of Astronomer Noted for His
Oct. 4–10, 2020: Petroleum Engineers, Denver, Contribution to the Science of
Earth Science Week
World Space Week Colorado Navigation, Born 1732
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Geoscience for Everyone Day
Great ShakeOut earthquake drill
International EarthCache Day 10:15 a.m. CST Learn more at
ShakeOut.org
Oct. 11–16, 2020:
International Archaeology Day
Geoscience Event: Oct. 15–17, 2020: Geoscience Event:
SEG International Exhibition and AISES National Conference, Did You Know?
90th Annual Meeting, Society American Indian Science and San Francisco’s 1989 Earthquake
Minerals Day Earth Observation Day
of Exploration Geophysicists, Engineering Society, Spokane, (Estimated Magnitude 6.9) Rocks
Houston, Texas Columbus Day No Child Left Inside Day National Fossil Day Washington Geologic Map Day Northern California, 1989
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Oct. 18–21, 2020: Oct. 22–24, 2020:
Geoscience Event: Geoscience Event:
GRC Annual Meeting & Expo, SACNAS National Diversity in
Geothermal Resources Council, STEM Conference, Society for Did You Know?
Reno, Nevada Advancement of Chicanos/ Fossil Butte National
Hispanics and Native Americans Monument, Containing Nearly
Oct. 18–24, 2020: in Science, Perfectly Preserved Fossils,
National Chemistry Week Long Beach, California Established 1972
25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Oct. 25–28, 2020: Oct. 29–31, 2020:
Geoscience Event: Geoscience Event:
GSA Annual Conference, NSTA Area Conference, National
Geological Society of America, Science Teachers Association,
Montréal, Québec, Canada Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Halloween
American Geosciences Institute | www.americangeosciences.org October 2020
November 2020
LEARNING ACTIVITY:
Carbon Travels
Steam-powered locomotives
burn coal to provide energy.
Unsplash.com/Giuseppe Ruco
W
GRADES 5-12 e find carbon everywhere on
Earth — in trees, rocks, fossil fuels,
MATERIALS oceans, and even you! Carbon
• Poster materials doesn’t stay in one place, though. Scientists • Group student’s ideas into the major
• Class set of dice study how carbon moves from one place to global carbon pools.
• Station instructions another. This is the carbon cycle.
and signs 2 Groups of students should prepare a
• Carbon journey table The Industrial Revolution, starting in poster about one of the major global
• Full teacher’s guide and the 1700s, saw a move to large-scale carbon pools (e.g. atmosphere, soil),
worksheets at manufacturing and the use of new using information from the Carbon Cycle
http://globecarboncycle. technologies, such as steam power and Adventure Story or other age-appropriate
unh.edu/cmap2.shtml electricity. This led to a huge increase in resources. 5 Each student adds the path of his/her
burning of carbon-rich fossil fuels, releasing journey on the board: one diagram for
into the atmosphere carbon (in the form 3 Hand out copies of the Journey Table pre-1700, and one for post-1700.
of carbon dioxide) that had been buried and a die to each student and tell them • Each time a student moved from one
underground for millions of years. How did the game will begin pre-1700 (before the pool to another, they should draw
these human actions affect the carbon cycle? Industrial Revolution). Model what to do an arrow. If they remained in a pool
at a station and how to use the Journey until the next turn, they should circle
PROCEDURE Table, emphasizing the importance of the pool.
(For Teacher) including all results, even if they remain at • Students begin to work independently
the same pool repeatedly. on completing “What’s Your Carbon
1 Tell students that you want to begin Story” until all students’ data are
teaching about carbon today, but you 4 Divide students so there is an equal displayed on the board.
cannot seem to find it. Ask students if number of students (if possible) at each • Consider students’ data. What was
anyone saw carbon today on their way station to begin the activity. different before and after 1700? What
into class. • Students follow the instructions, move do the differences reflect? Burning of
• Record the ideas of where carbon is around the room at their own pace fossil fuels and land use change?
found on the board. and record results in their tables. After
• Solicit additional ideas about the carbon 10 turns, they stand aside to show they NGSS CONNECTIONS
cycle. What is carbon? Where is it found? are done. • Science and Engineering Practices —
How does carbon move from one place • Flip over the instructions to begin Developing and Using Models
to another? What forms does it take? the post-1700 simulation. Students • Disciplinary Core Ideas — Earth’s Systems
Source: NASA. Adapted • Differentially highlight/circle the pools complete another 10 turns under the • Cross-Cutting Concepts — Energy
with permission. and fluxes. new conditions. and MatterSunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Happy Birthday!
Léon-Philippe Teisserenc de Bort,
French Meteorologist, Pioneer in
Daylight Saving Time Ends the Field of Aerology, Co-discoverer
of the Stratosphere, Born 1855
Happy Birthday!
Alfred Wegener, German Did You Know?
Meteorologist, Framer of Marie Curie’s Inaugural Lecture as Happy Birthday!
Continental Drift Theory, the First Woman Lecturer at the Marie Curie, Polish Geochemist
Born 1880 Sorbonne, 1906 and Physicist, Born 1867
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Nov. 8–11, 2020:
Geoscience Event: Happy Birthday!
ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Charles Lyell, Scottish Geologist,
Annual Meeting, Phoenix, “Principles of Geology” Author,
Arizona Veterans Day Born 1797
15 16 Happy Birthday!
17 18 19 20 21
James W. Mitchell, American
Chemist Advanced the Accuracy
of Trace Element Analyses,
Born 1943 GIS Day (Geographic
Information Systems) Day
Nov. 16–20, 2020: Nov. 19–21, 2020:
Geoscience Event: Happy Birthday! Geoscience Event:
EU Raw Materials Week, Alan Shepard, American NSTA Area Conference, National
Nov. 15–21, 2020: European Commission, Astronaut, First American in Science Teachers Association,
Geography Awareness Week Brussels, Belgium Space, Born 1923 New Orleans, Louisiana
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Happy Birthday!
Guion “Guy” S. Bluford, Jr,
American Astronaut, First Black
Astronaut in Space, Born 1942 Thanksgiving
29 30
American Geosciences Institute | www.americangeosciences.org November 2020December 2020
LEARNING ACTIVITY:
Soil, Sand, and Gravel
V
GRADES 5-12 arious types of sediments — what geoscientists call “surficial features” — lie above the Water interacts differently with various types of
bedrock in many places. The U.S. Geological Survey provides a map illustrating this sediments.
©Shutterstock/Tuzemka
MATERIALS phenomenon at https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2003/of03-275/.
For each student group:
• Computer with “Most daily human activities occur on or near 2 Discuss: What are areas with similar 6 Consider the sediment cups as models of
internet connection the Earth’s surface,” as the introduction to the surficial features? Where are there surficial surficial features. How might the different
• Three clear plastic cups map states. “Homeowners, communities, and features that seem to be related to surficial features affect the amount of
• Enough of each type of governments can make improved decisions features such as coastlines, mountains, water (hydrosphere) available to plants
sediment material — soil, about hazard, resource, and environmental or rivers? How might we model the (biosphere)? (In general, when water
sand, and gravel — to fill a issues, when they understand the nature of interaction of rain, streams, and oceans seeps into the sediments, it is available
plastic cup roughly halfway surficial materials and how they vary from with various sediments? to plants.)
• Small container of water place to place.”
(about a half-gallon) 3 Within your group, fill three clear plastic 7 Now, return to the U.S. Geological Survey
• Measuring cup Using this map can help students see the cups equally, about halfway, with a map online. What surficial features do you
• Pen and paper connections between those surficial features, different type of sediment (soil, sand, and see in your part of the country, near major
which are generally part of the geosphere, gravel). Describe the sediments in the rivers, and along coastlines? Why do you
and other Earth systems. The following cups. How are they different? think these patters occur?
activity shows how a visualization map of
surficial features can be used to consider the 4 Fill a measuring cup with water. With a pen EXTENSION
interactions of the geosphere, hydrosphere, and paper, record the amount of water in For an activity relating to surficial features
biosphere, and atmosphere. the measuring cup. Pour some into one of that you can do in the school yard, go
the clear plastic cups, adding water until to GLOBE at https://www.globe.gov/
PROCEDURE it is just above the level of the sediment. documents/352961/41672784-81d0-4189-
1 View the map and legend at https://pubs. Record the amount of water now in the 81f4-280acaa3364d.
usgs.gov/of/2003/of03-275/. Notice that measuring cup. Calculate the amount
different colors represent different types of water poured over sediment in the
of surficial features (sediments). The map clear plastic cup. Repeat this process for NGSS CONNECTIONS
colors indicate types of sediments that each sediment. • Science and Engineering Practices —
differ in size, material, textures, amount Engaging in Argument from Evidence
of organic material, and so on. The 5 Discuss: For which type of sediment does • Disciplinary Core Ideas — Earth Materials
map legend tells about various surficial the most water go into the cup? (Typically, and Systems
feature materials. larger sediments allow more water in.) • Cross-Cutting Concepts — Cause and
Source: America Geophysical Union. How can water go into the sediments? (It Effect: Mechanism and Explanation
Adapted with permission. seeps into spaces between particles.)Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
1 2 3 4 5
Happy Birthday!
Clyde Wahrhaftig, American
Geologist, Environmentalist, and Did You Know?
Recipient of GSA’s Kirk Bryan Aniakchak National Monument,
Award for Geomorphology, One of World’s Finest Examples of
Born 1919 Dry Caldera, Established 1980 World Soil Day
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Hanukkah Begins
Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day (Sundown)
Dec. 7–11, 2020: Dec.10–12, 2020:
Geoscience Event: Geoscience Event:
AGU Fall Meeting, American NSTA Area Conference, National
Geophysical Union, Science Teachers Association,
San Francisco, California Phoenix, Arizona International Mountain Day
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Did You Know? Happy Birthday!
First of Three Earthquakes in Allan Cox, American
New Madrid, Missouri (Estimated Geophysicist, Paleomagnetism
Magnitude 8.0), Causes Specialist, and Author of Two
Mississippi River to Change Books on Plate Tectonics,
Course, 1811 Born 1926 Hanukkah Ends
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
Dec. 26, 2020–Jan. 1, 2021:
Kwanzaa
Did You Know? Did You Know?
Albert Michelson Receives the Did You Know? Did You Know? Earthquake Off West Coast
Nobel Prize in Physics, Becoming Pierre-Jules-César Janssen Flew American Astronauts on Apollo 8 of Northern Sumatra
the First American to Win the in a Balloon in Order to Study a Become the First People to Orbit (Magnitude 9.0), Sets Off Massive
Nobel Prize in a Science, 1907 Winter Solstice Solar Eclipse, 1870 the Moon, 1968 Christmas Tsunami, 2004
27 28 29 30 31
New Year’s Eve
American Geosciences Institute | www.americangeosciences.org December 2020January 2021
Aluminum Bismuth
Copper
Incandescent Light Bulbs
LEARNING ACTIVITY: Pencils
Mineral Matching Attribution: Unknown Author, CC BY 3.0 Attribution: Johnathan Zander, CC BY-SA 2.5
Fold Here Fold Here
Fold Here
T
GRADES 6-12 he comfort of our daily lives is PROCEDURE Aluminum Bismuth
Copper
Cosmetics Table Salt
Uses: Mixed with other metals to create alloys, which are used in Uses: fireworks, ma
built largely on our use of natural 1 Break into small groups of 2-4 students
Uses: packaging (e.g., cans, aluminum foil), automobiles, Uses: currency, electronics, building construction (pipes & wires),
medicines for upset stomach (e.g., Pepto-Bismol), paints, fire metal mining; also u
pharmaceutical
detectors, machines
and fire sprinkler systems.
machinery, jewelry Mining/Extracting: The main copper-containing ores are cuprite, Mining/Extracting:
Mining/Extracting: Metallic aluminum is found in a rock Mining/extracting: Bismuth is most often extracted as a byproduct be mined: undergro
MATERIALS
bornite, malachite, azurite, and chalcopyrite. Copper is most
resources. However, natural resources and discuss: What are minerals, and where
called bauxite and is mined through open pit mining and of mining for other metals. Only Bolivia has a mine exclusively (injecting extremely
commonly mined in open pit mines, but can also be mined
sometimes through underground mining. The major producers meant to extract bismuth. The major producers of bismuth are extraction and is rem
underground. Major copper producers are Chile, China, Peru, and
of aluminum are Jamaica, Brazil, and Guinea (West Africa). China, Mexico and Bolivia. producers of sulfur
the U.S. (Arizona, New Mexico, Montana, and Utah).
Refining: Bismuth is heated and reacted with chlorine gas, which
• File of mineral cards to print, that are often overlooked include Earth’s can they be found? Write down your ideas
Refining: Bauxite is crushed, washed, and dried. It is then Refining: Refining: Sulfur is r
removes otherCopper
metals ore
andisimpurities
first crushed and ground
but leaves into a fine
the bismuth powder.
intact. is heated up to prod
heated and dissolved in a special solution which is filtered, Special liquid mixtures are used to separate the powder copper from
Fun Facts: Bismuth subsalicylate is the compound used in Pepto- Fun Facts: The Kaw
leaving an aluminum mixture behind. Solid aluminum the other minerals by “frothing” and then skimming the mixture. This
Bismol. It works by reducing inflammation and decreasing the flow due to the presence
downloaded at mineral resources. The minerals contained in and discuss with the class.
precipitates out of this mixture and is collected. results in a copper concentrate, but it can be further refined by
of fluids to the bowels. Bismuth alloys are also used in fire sprinkler color. Pure sulfur ha
Fun Fact: In the 1800s, aluminum was more valuable than “roasting”, smelting, oxidation, and casting so that it can then be
systems because bismuth melts at a low temperature. When the air produce the rotten e
made into other copper products.
gold! becomes hot during a fire, the bismuth plug in the water pipes melt give skunks their fo
andFun Fact: The Statue of Liberty is made of 179,000 pounds of
http://geologymuseum. rocks are just as vital to make the things we 2 Think about and make a list of everyday
release the water.
copper!
Sources: aluminum.org; mineralseducationcoalition.org; nma.org Sources: mineralseducationcoalition.org;
Sources: copperalliance.org.uk;Wikipedia.org
nma.org Sources: g
rutgers.edu/images/PDFs/ need as are water and fossil fuel resources. objects that might be made from minerals.
mineralmatchingcards.pdf 3 Obtain a packet of mineral cards from your
• Computer with internet Our earliest human ancestors used minerals teacher. Arrange them on a table with the
Currency Fireworks
access, printer, and paper to to shape tools out of stone. Ancient Egyptian, cards of everyday items and products in
print cards Greek, Roman, and Aztec societies also one row, and the cards of the minerals in a
• Scissors used minerals in their everyday lives. Valued second row.
• Glue, tape, or laminator to for their unique properties, minerals help 4 Work together to match the everyday
match the front and backs humans achieve new advances in technology, product with the mineral from which it is
of cards build everything from cars to spaceships, and made. Continue until you have matched
• Pencils and paper even help keep us healthy. all 20 sets of cards. Card game by Geological Society of America, Rutgers Geology
Cans Upset-Stomach
Museum and TERC. Medications
Copper image: Johnathan Zander,
5 Check your answers by flipping the CC BY-SA 2.5
Look around the room. You are surrounded mineral card over and reading through the
by minerals that make up the bricks, tiles, information to find the correct mineral use 9 Think about the teams that would need
windowpanes, concrete, plumbing and illustrated on each card. to work together to make these mining
wiring running through the walls, and even 6 Read through the information provided on methods a success. Make a list of three to
the walls themselves. In this activity you will the cards and write down any additional four professionals (scientists, engineers,
Attribution: ParentingPatch, CC BY-SA 3.0
examine some ways minerals are used in our everyday objects or uses of minerals you etc.) who would work together to
everyday lives. missed in step 2. accomplish this.
7 Look at your list and record answers to 10 Finally, minerals are a nonrenewable
NGSS CONNECTIONS the following and discuss with others: resource, and their extraction has many
Source: Geological Society of • Science and Engineering Practices — What mineral-based product surprised effects on local ecosystems. Write down
America. Adapted with permission. Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating you? Which one is the most important for three ways the environment would
Activity written by Lauren
Information; Asking Questions and society, and why? change, for better or worse, as a result of
Neitzke Adamo, Julia Criscione,
Ria Sarkar, and Carla McAuliffe in Defining Problems 8 The terms “open pit” and “underground mining operations. Discuss your ideas.
collaboration with the Geological • Disciplinary Core Ideas — Human Impacts mining” are used to describe the methods
Society of America, the Rutgers on Earth Systems; Natural Resources of extracting minerals from the ground. For K-5 students: Do steps 1-5 only, then
Geology Museum (https://
geologymuseum.rutgers.edu/) and • Cross-Cutting Concepts — Structure and Choose one of these methods and discuss natural resources and minerals with
TERC (https://www.terc.edu/). Function; Patterns research the process online. your teacher.Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
1 2
New Year’s Day
Jan. 1–31, 2021:
Hawai’i Volcano Awareness
Month
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Did You Know? Did You Know?
Cleveland Abbe Becomes the Voyageurs National Park,
Chief Scientist of the Newly Featuring Some of North
Formed U.S. Weather Service, America’s Oldest Rocks,
1871 Established 1975
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Jan. 10–14, 2021:
Geoscience Event: Did You Know? Happy Birthday!
AMS Annual Meeting, American Earthquake (Magnitude 7.0) Arthur Holmes, British Geologist,
Meteorological Society, New Strikes Capital of Haiti, Causing Pioneer of Radioactive Dating of
Orleans, Louisiana Nearly 300,000 Deaths, 2010 Minerals, Born 1890
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
Happy Birthday!
Benjamin Franklin, U.S. Scientist,
Pioneering Inventor and
Diplomat, Born 1706 Happy Birthday!
Andrija Mohorovicic, Croatian
Did You Know? Physicist, Seismologist and
Northridge Earthquake Meteorologist, Namesake of
(Magnitude 6.7) Strikes Los Base of Earth’s Crust, the “Moho,”
Angeles Area, California, 1994 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Born 1857
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Did You Know?
Earthquake (Magnitude 8.7–9.2) Happy Birthday!
Occurs Along the Cascadia Friedrich Mohs, German
Subduction Zone and Causes a Geologist and Mineralogist,
Tsunami on the Coast of Japan, Creator of Scale of Mineral
31 1700 Hardness, Born 1773
American Geosciences Institute | www.americangeosciences.org January 2021February 2021
LEARNING ACTIVITY:
Sifting Stones
E
GRADES 3-8 very day the aggregate industry sifts A pile of randomly sized natural gravel and piles of the screened separate sized products,
millions of tons of rock pieces to make each of which meets specifications for particular use in construction projects.
Images courtesy of the Ohio Aggregate and Industrial Minerals Association.
MATERIALS important and valuable construction
• 2 lb (1 L) crushed stone materials from raw resources of crushed
of random sizes smaller stone or gravel. Engineers specify size ranges
than 1.5 inch (38 mm) (can of rock pieces to be used to make concrete, 2 Estimate the amount (weight or volume)
be purchased from local asphalt, and so on. We depend on concrete of material retained on Screen A, then
landscape/hardware store) or asphalt for sidewalks, highways, and estimate the amount retained by Screen B,
• Screen with 0.5 inch basement floors and walls, among many and then estimate the amount passing
(12.7 mm) holes (Screen A) other things — in fact, more than 20,000 through Screen B. Added together these
and screen with 1/8 inch pounds (10 tons) of size-specific aggregates should add up to 100 percent.
(3 mm) holes (Screen B) are needed for every person per year in the
(screens may be made using United States! 3 Assume the material coarser than
hardware cloth or purchased Screen A is worth $15/ton, the next
or borrowed from a local In this exercise you will sift (screen, as it is smaller material is worth $10/ton, and
ready-mix concrete or known in the industry) randomly sized rocks the dust worth $3/ton. What is the value A technician using a screen to sort rock particles.
Image courtesy of the Gilson Company.
aggregate supplier) into groups of specified size ranges. This of 10 tons of material sized to each these
process not only allows the screened product specifications? Using the estimated
to meet an engineer’s requirements for use, percentages, which resulting pile is
but also increases the value of the material most valuable? Go to www.MineralsEducationCoalition.
over the value of the original, random- org/esw for an accompanying video
sized material. 4 Discuss: and lesson plan and more detailed
• What size would you try to maximize for standards correlations.
PROCEDURE production? Minimize?
1 Take the crushed stone and sift it using • What factors affect the size of
Screen A. This produces (on top) the the materials (such as geologic, NGSS CONNECTIONS
clean, crushed stone that is used along equipment, production)? • Science and Engineering Practices —
with sand and Portland cement to make • Where could the type of rock you used Planning and Carrying Out Investigations
concrete pavement. Use Screen B to sift be obtained in nature? Where have you • Disciplinary Core Ideas — Earth and
what fell through. What stays on Screen B seen a mine or quarry? Human Activity
Source: Minerals Education
Coalition. Adapted is the “chips” used with sand and asphalt • How would you design a machine to • Crosscutting Concepts — Scale,
with permission. to make asphalt pavement. sort rock pieces by size? Proportion and QuantitySunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
1 2 3 4 5 6
Did You Know?
The First of Five Strong
Earthquakes (Magnitude 7.0)
Groundhog Day Hit the Region of Calabria in
Southern Italy and Produce
World Wetlands Day Significant Tsunamis, 1783
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
International Day of Women
and Girls in Science
Did You Know? Happy Birthday!
Earthquake (8.8 Magnitude) Did You Know? Charles Darwin,
Shakes Chile, Triggering a Death Valley National Park, English Naturalist,
Tsunami that Hits Hawai’i, Lowest Below Sea Level in North “The Origin of Species” Author,
2010 America, Proclaimed 1933 Born 1809
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Presidents Day
Did You Know?
Happy Birthday! John Glenn Becomes First
Galileo Galilei, American to Orbit the Earth,
Italian Astronomer, Physicist Flying Aboard Spacecraft
Valentine’s Day and Engineer, Born 1564 Ash Wednesday Friendship 7, 1962
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
Did You Know?
Charles M. Hall, a Young U.S. Did You Know?
Chemist, Invents an Inexpensive Grand Canyon National Park,
Method for Producing Aluminum Exhibiting Largest Section
Feb. 21–27, 2021: by Separating It from Its of Geologic Time on Earth,
National Engineers Week Bauxite Ore, 1886 Established 1919
28
American Geosciences Institute | www.americangeosciences.org February 2021March 2021
LEARNING ACTIVITY:
Modeling an Oil Reserve
S
GRADES 8-12 ince 1970, oil and natural gas have
provided more than half of the energy
MATERIALS used each year in the United States to • Probe gently through the sand. Look
• A cardboard box or other produce electricity, heat, transportation fuels, at the skewer for evidence of “oil.” This
opaque container with and many everyday products from balloons models the drilling process. Remember:
cardboard lid to vitamins. Oil and natural gas are forms of Every centimeter of depth that you
• Sand petroleum, a word that literally means “oily drill costs $150,000. In addition, each
• Marker pens rock.” Petroleum is called a fossil fuel because time you move to a new spot to drill
• Clear plastic drinking straws it is geologically very old and is found in the costs $75,000.
• Graph paper ground, like fossils. • Place a lid securely on the box and
• Small rock samples fasten it with masking tape. Exchange • Keep a record of how many centimeters
• Balloon with water Abundant oil and natural gas form only your model with another group. you drill and how many times you
• Food coloring where conditions in the Earth are just move the skewer to a new spot, so
• Masking tape right. Doing this investigation will help you 2 With the other group’s box, you will you can calculate the total cost of your
• Bamboo kebab skewer understand how geoscientists identify and model the method used by exploration exploration. Continue drilling until you
explore petroleum-rich reserves. geologists in the field. You may not move find “oil.”
the box, and you may not look inside it.
PROCEDURE Attach graph paper to the lid of the box. 4 What was the total cost of your
1 In a small box or opaque container set Tap on the box and listen for an area that exploration? If you were to start over,
up the model similar to the one shown “sounds different.” Use the graph paper to how would you change your exploration
in the illustration. Place a small balloon record the locations of areas that sound procedure to save money? Compare your
containing colored water (to represent different and seem like likely candidates results with the group that constructed
oil) into the layers. Think carefully about for oil exploration. the model. Look at their map. Was the
where to place your oil reserves in the oil deposit where they said it should be?
model. Putting it in the middle might be 3 Probe the box to search for “oil” (the water What could you have done to make your
too obvious, or placing it against the side balloon) in the places you identified. exploration more cost-effective?
of the box might be too confusing! Mark off divisions of one centimeter on a
bamboo skewer, beginning at the bottom. NGSS CONNECTIONS
• Mark the sides of the box “North,” Use the bamboo skewer to penetrate the • Science and Engineering Practices —
Source: Adapted with permission “South,” “East,” and “West.” Make a map of box lid at the location where you think the Developing and Using Models
by the American Association your model to show the location of the oil may be located. • Disciplinary Core Ideas —
of Petroleum Geologists from water-balloon “oil reserve.” Natural Resources
AGI’s Earth System Science in the
Community (EarthComm). • Cross-Cutting Concepts — Systems and
Illustrations: AGI/Stuart Armstrong System ModelsSunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
1 2 3 4 5 6
Did You Know?
United States Geological Survey
Founded, 1879
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday! Vladimir Vernadsky,
John Playfair, Scottish Russian-Soviet Mineralogist and
Mathematician, Physicist, and Geochemist Who Is Considered
Geologist, Author of “Illustrations One of the Founders of
of the Huttonian Theory of the Geochemistry, Biogeochemistry,
Earth,” 1748 and Radiogeology, 1863
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Daylight Saving Time Begins
Happy Birthday! Vernal Equinox
Albert Einstein, German-American
Physicist, Author of “Theory of Happy Birthday!
Relativity,” Born 1879 Lucy Myers Wright Mitchell,
Persian-American Self-Taught
March 14–20, 2021: Archaeologist Who Was One of
National Groundwater the First American Women in
Awareness Week St. Patrick’s Day the Field
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
Passover Begins ( Sundown)
Did You Know?
Happy Birthday! Did You Know? Great Alaska Earthquake
John Wesley Powell, Earthquake (Magnitude 7.7) in (Magnitude 9.2) Is
U.S. Geologist and Venezuela Causes a New Lake to Second-Largest of 20th Century
Anthropologist, Grand Canyon Form and the River Yurubí to be and Largest Recorded in
World Water Day World Meteorological Day Explorer, Born 1834 Dammed Up Northern Hemisphere, 1964
28 29 30 31
American Geosciences Institute | www.americangeosciences.org March 2021Photos of student
April 2021 drifter designs.
Kama Almasi
LEARNING ACTIVITY:
Engineering Biodegradable Drifters
D
GRADES 7-10 rifter buoys, or drifters, are scientific PROCEDURE
equipment that collect data from the 1 Divide into small groups to build your
MATERIALS surface of a body of water. Drifters drifter buoy, perhaps as shown in the
• Oranges, apples, allow scientists to track currents, temperature, photos above. Be creative, and decorate
and potatoes salinity, and other factors as they float freely your drifter with permanent markers.
• Twigs or bamboo skewers and transmit information. The materials will ensure that your drifter
• Corn-based eating utensils floats, and that is what matters most.
• Wooden toothpicks The National Oceanic and Atmospheric
• Dried seaweed, corn husks, Administration (NOAA) has hundreds of 2 Test your drifter buoy in a local creek,
or other biodegradable drifter buoys across the globe. These drifters stream, or any naturally moving water. NOAA Teacher at Sea Dieuwertje “DJ” Kast, ready
sheets (e.g., cotton or gather and share information and are Wear clothes you can get wet and closed- to deploy a drifter buoy from the NOAA ship Henry
B. Bigelow.
bamboo) for flags or sails powered by batteries in the round floating toed shoes or waders. Bring measuring NOAA/Teacher at Sea/Jerry Prezioso
• Permanent markers body of the buoy. Attached to the floating tape, stopwatches, and paper for data
• Long-handled net body is a “drogue.” The canvas or nylon recording. You may want a long-handled 4 Back in the classroom, calculate group
• Stopwatches drogue, which looks like a tail towed behind net to catch any drifters that escape. drifter speeds. You will start with your
• Pen and paper to use as the buoy, can extend many meters below distance (50 meters) divided by your
a datasheet the surface of the water. It allows the buoy 3 Divide your group into two sub-groups. time in seconds to calculate the speed in
to be pulled by currents beneath the surface, One sub-group will stand upstream at meters per second (m/s).
not just pushed by winds from above. NOAA the drop-off location. The other will stand
mainly uses drifters in ocean waters, but they 50 meters downstream for pick-up. You can then calculate time required for
can also be useful in freshwater. • Set up start and finish lines using strings. drifters to travel over longer distances, such
• Drop-off teams stand in the center of as to the entrance to the ocean. You can use
You can explore data from these buoys and the stream with their drifter. When all this information to calculate how long it
apply to “adopt” one with the NOAA Adopt a teams are ready, at the agreed-upon would take a piece of debris from your local
Drifter Program. Visit www.adp.noaa.gov to signal, release drifters while pick-up waterway to drift to the ocean.
learn more. In this activity, you will design and teams start the stopwatches.
build a biodegradable drifter and calculate • Pick-up teams grab the drifters as they NGSS CONNECTIONS
the surface current speed of a small body float to the finish line and record time • Science and Engineering Practices —
of water. on a datasheet. Developing and Using Models
• Then, have your groups move • Disciplinary Core Ideas — Human Impacts
downstream and repeat the steps above on Earth Systems
Source: National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration. to average data and predict overall • Cross-Cutting Concepts — Analyzing and
Adapted with permission. stream velocity. Interpreting DataSunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
1 2 3
April Fool’s Day Did You Know?
Earthquake (Magnitude 7.9) on
Did You Know? Hawai’i Island Caused a Landslide
Start of Midwest Flood of Upper and Tsunami. The Aftershock
Mississippi River Basin That Sequence for This Event has
Would Cover Nine Midwestern Continued Up to the Present
and Great Plains States, 1993 day, 1868
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
April 8–11, 2021:
April 7–11, 2021: Geoscience Event:
Geoscience Event: NSTA National Conference on
AAG Annual Meeting, American Science Education, National
Association of Geographers, Science Teachers Association,
Passover Ends Seattle, Washington Chicago, Illinois
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Happy Birthday!
Did You Know? Did You Know? Marie Maynard Daly, American
Arches National Park, World’s Start of Mount Eyjafjallajökull Biochemist, the First Black
Highest Concentration of Eruption in Iceland, Grounding American Woman in the U.S.
Natural Arches, Flights Across Europe for to Earn a Ph.D. in Chemistry, April 17–25, 2021:
Established 1929 Almost a Week, 2010 Born 1921 National Park Week
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Did You Know?
Did You Know?
Soviet Union Launches Salyut 1,
Great 1906 San Francisco
First Space Station, 1971
Earthquake (Estimated Did You Know?
Magnitude 7.8) Tears 270-Mile April 19–23, 2021: Start of Great Flood of Mississippi
Rift Along San Andreas Fault, National Environmental River Valley That Would Inundate
1906 Education Week (EE Week) 27,000 Square Miles, 1927 Earth Day
25 26 27 28 29 30
Arbor Day
American Geosciences Institute | www.americangeosciences.org April 2021May 2021
LEARNING ACTIVITY:
Ring of Fire
A
GRADES 6-9 plate boundary may be shown as a line on a map that defines the edge of a tectonic
plate, usually indicating where one plate meets another. Plate boundaries are further
MATERIALS divided by the direction that the two plates are moving relative to one another.
• Computer with internet
access and printer When plates are moving towards one another, the zone of contact is called a convergent
• Paper plate boundary. When plates are moving away from each other, it is called a divergent plate
• Colored pencils boundary. Plates sliding past each other horizontally do so at a transform plate boundary.
In this activity, you’ll identify plate boundaries as well as continents, countries, and bodies of
water to become familiar with an area known as the “Ring of Fire.” (For teachers: To explore
further, download the Mount Rainier National Park “Sister Mountain Project” activity online
at https://tinyurl.com/y8pvo6ke.)
PROCEDURE 3 Use various library and internet resources The volcanoes of the Pacific Northwest are
1 Discuss: The Pacific Rim is a such as atlases, encyclopedia, and plate part of the Ring of Fire. Mount Rainier National
conglomeration of Pacific Ocean border tectonic maps to locate and label each Park, Washington.
Courtesy of NPS
countries including Australia, Peru, item on the list with colored pencils.
Argentina, China, Russia, Japan, Canada,
Students celebrate in the high and the United States, each with its 4 Go online to the “Mapping the Ring of 6 Draw in the plate boundaries of the plates
cascades during a ranger program
at Mount Rainier National own economic, geographic, political, Fire PowerPoint” (https://tinyurl.com/ located beneath the Pacific Ocean on your
Park, Washington. environmental and cultural backgrounds. y9yxe7wy) to view a slideshow with “Pacific Rim Map.”
Courtesy of NPS The countries of the Pacific Rim have a seismic maps of the Pacific Rim. During
rich history of interconnected trade, travel the slideshow, pause to sketch notes To further explore this topic in the context
and geologic processes known as the Ring on your map when viewing the maps of U.S. national parks, go online to Plate
of Fire. How are the people living in the of seismic data of the Pacific Northwest, Tectonics & Our National Parks (www.nps.
Pacific Rim interconnected and similar? Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Rim. gov/subjects/geology/plate-tectonics.htm).
2 Print up your own “Pacific Rim Map” and 5 Also during the slideshow, pause to NGSS CONNECTIONS
“Mapping the Ring of Fire Handout” complete questions from the slideshow • Science and Engineering Practices —
(https://tinyurl.com/yb4hxdul). on the “Mapping the Ring of Fire Student Obtaining, Evaluating, and
Practice your skills at reading a map Worksheet” (https://tinyurl.com/ Communicating Information
and using latitude and longitude to y78oank4). • Disciplinary Core Ideas — Plate Tectonics
Source: National Park Service. identify locations. Read the handout and and Large-Scale System Interactions
Adapted with permission. review instructions. • Cross-Cutting Concepts — PatternsYou can also read
