Enduring Understandings:

• Rocks can be neither created nor destroyed, they are just recycled through the layers of the Earth (lithosphere).

• Rocks are formed in many different ways and from different minerals.

• Rocks have different uses and characteristics that help distinguish them from each other.

• Minerals can be identified using different properties and some minerals are more valuable than others.

• Mining puts undue burdens in the environment.

 

 

Essential Question(s):

• What is the rock cycle?

• How do rocks form?

• How does weathering change Earth’s surface?

• How does water change Earth’s surface?

• How do wind, ice, and gravity change Earth’s surface?

• What are minerals, how do they form, and how can they be identified?

• Why are some rocks/minerals valuable and others not?

• Does the financial gain outweigh the environmental impact of mining?

 

Standards:

 

NGSS

MS-ESS2-1. Develop a model to describe the cycling of Earth's materials and the flow of energy that drives this process.

MS-ESS3-1. Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how the uneven distributions of Earth's mineral, energy, and groundwater resources are the result of past and current geoscience processes.

 

CCSS 

ELA/Literacy

RST.6-8.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts.

RST.6-8.2 Determine the central ideas or conclusions of a text; provide an accurate summary of the text distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.

RST.6-8.4 Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases as they are used in a specific scientific or technical context relevant to grades 6–8 texts and topics.

RST.6-8.7 Integrate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text with a version of that information expressed visually (e.g., in a flowchart, diagram, model, graph, or table).

WHST.6-8.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.

WHST.6-8.9 Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

SL.8.5 Include multimedia components and visual displays in presentations to clarify claims and findings and emphasize salient points.

 

Mathematics

6.EE.B.6 Use variables to represent numbers and write expressions when solving a real-world or mathematical problem; understand that a variable can represent an unknown number, or, depending on the purpose at hand, any number in a specified set.

7.EE.B.4 Use variables to represent quantities in a real-world or mathematical problem, and construct simple equations and inequalities to solve problems by reasoning about the quantities.