Lesson 1 - Rock Solid: An introduction to the types of rocks and minerals, as well as material stresses and weathering

Lesson 2 - Making & Breaking: How natural weathering, erosion, pressure and heat are part of the rock cycle

Lesson 3 - Fantastic Fossils: Geoologic time and fossil formation

Lesson 4 - How Mountains Are Formed: The Earth's crust and tectonic plates as they impact roadways, tunnels, natural resource location and natural disaster prediction

Lesson 5 - Soil Investigations: Soil formation, composition and properties as seen in soil profiles and soil sampling for environmental site assessment

Engineers learn about the natural world in order to design the human-built environment. Rocks, soils, fossils and the Earth's crust make up the foundation of the world we depend upon. Engineers must understand the characteristics of these rocks and materials so that they can design big infrastructure projects—such as bridges, foundations, roads and tunnels—to be safe and long-lasting. Geotechnical engineers apply their understanding of rocks to environmental site investigations for the purposes of land development and environmental stewardship. To prevent and limit the destruction of communities and human life, engineers also develop technologies to assess and predict natural hazards caused by rock movement. Engineers apply their understanding of science and math to designing the tools and instrumentation for sampling, sensing, drilling, boring, analyzing and modeling—so we can learn more and predict better.

MS-ESS2-1 Develop a model to describe the cycling of Earth's materials and the flow of energy that drives this process.
Grades 6-8
This resource focuses on the following Three Dimensional Learning aspects of NGSS:
Science & Engineering Practices
- Develop and use a model to describe phenomena.
  Do you agree with this alignment?
Disciplinary Core Ideas
- All Earth processes are the result of energy flowing and matter cycling within and among the planet's systems. This energy is derived from the sun and Earth's hot interior. The energy that flows and matter that cycles produce chemical and physical changes in Earth's materials and living organisms.
  Do you agree with this alignment?
Crosscutting Concepts
- Explanations of stability and change in natural or designed systems can be constructed by examining the changes over time and processes at different scales, including the atomic scale.
  Do you agree with this alignment?
Do you agree with this alignment?
MS-ESS2-2 Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth's surface at varying time and spatial scales.
Grades 6-8
This resource focuses on the following Three Dimensional Learning aspects of NGSS:
Science & Engineering Practices
- Construct a scientific explanation based on valid and reliable evidence obtained from sources (including the students' own experiments) and the assumption that theories and laws that describe the natural world operate today as they did in the past and will continue to do so in the future.
  Do you agree with this alignment?
Disciplinary Core Ideas
- The planet's systems interact over scales that range from microscopic to global in size, and they operate over fractions of a second to billions of years. These interactions have shaped Earth's history and will determine its future.
  Do you agree with this alignment?
- Water's movements—both on the land and underground—cause weathering and erosion, which change the land's surface features and create underground formations.
  Do you agree with this alignment?
Crosscutting Concepts
- Time, space, and energy phenomena can be observed at various scales using models to study systems that are too large or too small.
  Do you agree with this alignment?
Do you agree with this alignment?

Rock Cycle

UnitLessonActivity

Rock Cycle

Overview

Engineering Connection

Educational Standards

Next Generation Science Standards - Science

Schedule

Curriculum in this Unit

Copyright & Attributions

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