Quarter 4
Unit 8 ~ Earth Systems
Essential questions:
• How do people figure out that the Earth and life on Earth have changed over time?
• How does the movement of tectonic plates affect the surface of Earth?
• How do the materials in and on Earth’s crust change over time?
Standards:
MS-ESS1-4, MS-ESS2-1, MS-ESS2-2. MS-ESS2-3.
Driving question 1:
What scientific evidence found in rock strata can be used to explain how the geologic time scale
is used to organize Earth’s 4.6-billion-year-old history?
Driving question 2:
What drives the cycling of Earth’s materials?
Driving question 3:
How have geoscience processes changed Earth’s surface at varying time and spatial scales?
Driving question 4:
How does the distribution of fossils and rocks, continental shapes, and seafloor structures
provide evidence of past plate motions?
Essential questions:
• How do people figure out that the Earth and life on Earth have changed over time?
• How does the movement of tectonic plates affect the surface of Earth?
• How do the materials in and on Earth’s crust change over time?
Standards:
MS-ESS1-4, MS-ESS2-1, MS-ESS2-2. MS-ESS2-3.
Driving question 1:
What scientific evidence found in rock strata can be used to explain how the geologic time scale
is used to organize Earth’s 4.6-billion-year-old history?
Driving question 2:
What drives the cycling of Earth’s materials?
Driving question 3:
How have geoscience processes changed Earth’s surface at varying time and spatial scales?
Driving question 4:
How does the distribution of fossils and rocks, continental shapes, and seafloor structures
provide evidence of past plate motions?