See "Listing Folder" for information, links, and materials for each unit.
See "Intro to Course, Expectation" for Link to Textbook, Supplies, Materials, Extra Help, Grades,
Homework Policy,How to Contact Me, etc.
General Earth Science Course Outline:
Unit 1: Introduction
A View of Earth
Intro to Earth System and Planetary Science
Spheres of Earth, Interactions, and Connections
How Science is Done/Observations/Discoveries/Hypothesis and Theory/Tools
Star Night. Ms. Chang's Class with Host, George Roberts
Human Interactions: Resources, Population, Humans as Geological Force
Unit 2: The Nebular Hypothesis, the Origin of the Solar System and Planets
Birth of Earth; Change Over Time; Magnetic Field; Origin of Moon;
Earth's Interior (Composition, Structure, Pressure, Layering of Materials)
How We Know: Seismic Waves
Magnetic Field.
- Intro to the Solar System
Sun, planets, moons, dwarf planets, comets, asteroids
Characteristics, materials, similarities, differences, change over time
Motion ñ revolution and rotation
Relative distance, size, density, variations
Latest Discoveries : What We Learn By Studying Other Planets
Unit 3: Discovering Earth's History : What Do We Know and How Do We Know It?
Geological Time
Geological Columns ñ Rock Record
Fossils: Evidence of Past Life
Microbial Tracks and Traces
Dating with Radioactivity (Zircons and Isotopes)
zircon crystals Dr. Sam Bowring of MIT shared with students when we visited his lab in 2009
(courtesy Dr. Sam Bowring, MIT)
Unit 4 The Geological Time Scale
Earthís Planetary History: Driving Forces and Change Over Time
(Geolological, Biological, Chemical, and Climactic )
Hadean, Archaen, Proterozoic (and Snowball Earth),
Paleozoic, Mesozoic,
Earth curing the Cretaceous (courtesy Ron Blakey)
and Cenozoic (Eocene, Pleistocene, Holocene)
(Eocene student art: Eve Roth: the Last Time Earth was in an "hot house" climate)
These fossils are from WHS's collection of fossils
Unit 5: Plate Tectonics: A Unifying Theory
Continental Drift and Alfred Wegener
Origin of a Theory: An Interdisciplinary View
Paradigm Shift/Evolution of an Idea
Observations, Hypothesis, Evidence, Testing, Theory
Actions at Boundaries (earthquakes, rifting, sea floor spreading, volcanoes)
The Mantle and Hot Spots
The Evidence ñ Paleomagnetisms; Testing
Earthquakes ñ (Patterns and Predicting)
Volcanoes - (Patterns, Materials, Role in Earth System)
Mechanisms of Plate Tectonics
Plate Tectonics in Earth System ñ rocks, carbon, biogeochemical cycles,
biodiversity and evolution
Unit 6: Atoms and Minerals
Origins (Review from Previous Units) of Earthly Materials
Unique Interactions Between Biology and Geology
Intro to Atoms
Minerals - How to Identify, Connection to Origin of Life, Role on Planet
Unit 7 Rocks and Geology
Rock Cycle - Connecting all the Spheres
Processes at Work on the Surface
Weathering, Sedimentary Rocks
Plate Tectonics and Igneous Rocks
Volcanoes, Igneous Rocks, and Land Forms
Erosional Agents and Sedimentary Rocks
Mountain Building and Metamorphic Rocks
Flow of Water
Rocks and Global Climate and and Carbon Cycle Connection
Carbon Cycle
Igneous, Sedimentary, and Metamorphic Rocks and Forces that Create Them
Earth's History in Rocks
(photo credit: Sedimentary Rock Formations, taken by former student Sarah Blenko)
Unit 8: Intro Carbon Cycle
Review of Connections to Past Units
How does carbon move through earth system?
Sinks and Sources
Natural Processes That Move Carbon from one Resevoir to Another
Human Activities
Impacts of increased carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere
Unit 9: The Atmosphere
Structure and Composition of Atmosphere
Human Impacts and Pollution; Ozone Layer
Heating ñ conduction, convection, radiation
Greenhouse Effect
Solar Radiation
Electromagnetic Spectrum
Seasons - Revolution, Earth's Tilt, Length of Day - Rotation
Planetarium: Moon Phases; Earth-Sun-Moon motions
Star Night: Motions in Sky; Observing Objects in the Night Sky
Controls over Temperature
Climate Systems
Unit 10: Global Climate in the Past and Present
Paleoclimatology: How Do We Study the Past
 Vostok Graph. Note the double y axes (which students will learn to create). Temperature change represents "change in temperature" from mid twentieth century - not 'absolute' temperature.
Natural Cycles of Change, Slow and Abrupt Climate Change
Human Impacts
Modern Record
Changes at the Poles; Role of Sea Ice
Exploring Science and Society, Science as a Human Endeavor,
and Science to Solve Problems
Honors Only: Independent Research Project: Research, Data Collection, Data Manipulation, Analysis, Synthesis, Graphing, Writing, and Communicating Science
Using ImageJ to Measure Change in Sea Ice Over Time (satellite image data)
Ellen Mosley-Thompson processing ice cores in a trench excavated below the snow surface at Siple Station in Antarctica where she and her team drilled a 303-meter long ice core (given to me by EM Thompson)
 Ice Core Expedition to tropical glaciers; solar powered drills for coring!
Below: Ice cores from Antarctica
Lonnie Thompson - world famous ice core scientist from Ohio State University (on left). On Right, Quelcayya Ice Cap in Peru, 1977
   Using coral for paleoclimatology
Unit 11: Atmospheric Winds and Pressure
Global Circulation
Winds
Weather
Extreme Weather Events
Below: The sky before Hurricane Katrina landed
Unit 12: Oceanography
Structure and Composition
Sea Floor Topography
Currents - surface and deep
Tides (back to moon and phases, earth-sun-moon motions)
Role in the Global Climate System
Atmosphere-Ocean System
El Nino
Unit 13: Origin of the Universe and Space
Big Bang, Stars, Galaxies, Dark Energy, Dark Matter, and Weird Stuff
The Milky Way, seen from Glacier National Park in 2008 (taken by Tyler Nordgren)
The Night Sky, from Glacier Nat'l Park, 2008
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