Grade 6:  Energy Flow and Earth Processes

6.ESS1.4 Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence from rock strata for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth’s geologic history.

6.ESS2.1 Develop a model to describe the cycling of Earth’s materials and the flow of energy that drives these processes within and among Earth’s systems.

6.ESS2.2 Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth’s surface at varying time and spatial scales.

6.ESS2.3 Analyze and interpret data on the patterns of distribution of fossils and rocks, continental shapes, and seafloor structures to provide evidence of the past plate motions. 

In a Nutshell

Earth’s history is documented in chronological order using the fossil record and rock strata (layers). Students can use this information as evidence to support explanations for how this geologic time scale serves as a “calendar” for Earth’s geologic history. This history contains information on the existence, diversity, and extinctions of life over time. This history also shows how Earth’s systems (geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere) have interacted to shape Earth’s surface in small and large ways over both short and long spans of time. These changes are evident from observations of rock, fossils, continental shapes and the ocean floor. Students can examine and interpret these observations to explain how geoscience processes have changed Earth’s surface at varying time and spatial scales. Students can also use models to illustrate how energy flow and the cycling of matter drives these processes within and among Earth’s systems.

Student Actions

Teacher Actions 

• Apply scientific ideas and principles to explain that fossils and the rock strata are normally found in order relative to each other (i.e. relative dating) and are not able to provide absolute dates.

• Argue using geologic evidence that there is a pattern found in undisturbed rock layers where older fossils and rock strata are usually found in the bottom layers and that newer fossils and rock strata are typically found in the top layers (e.g. law of superposition).

• Use graphical displays of data sets from charts, graphs, or images to identify patterns in the chronological placement of fossils in the layers of sedimentary rock.

• Apply scientific reasoning to describe the relationship between water and the surface features and underground formations caused by erosion and weathering.

• Develop a model that describes the chemical and physical changes produced by the cycling of energy and matter through Earth’s systems.

• Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the interaction of the planet’s systems have shaped Earth’s history and will determine its future. 

• Develop and/or revise a model to show the relationships among Earth’s processes (large and small) that are a result of the cycling of matter and the flow of energy within and among the planet’s systems.

• Analyze and interpret data to explain how tectonic plates have continually generated new sea floor at ridges of diverging plates and destroyed old sea floor at trenches of converging plates.

• Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence that supports the theory of plate tectonics and demonstrates the idea that the distribution of identical fossil species on various plates indicates that the plates used to be connected.

• Apply scientific ideas about the present shapes and patterns of the continents and how they can be made to fit together relatively well, supports the theory that Pangaea once existed.

• Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence to show that major events (i.e. formation of mountain chains and ocean basins, adaptation and extinction of organisms, volcanic eruptions, glaciation, development of water structures, and erosion) are continually recorded in the layers of Earth’s strata. 

• Provide students with opportunities to interact with evidence from rock layers including fossils, and use student explanations to account for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth’s geologic history.

• Use student developed models to help students follow the flow of energy within and among Earth’s systems. 

• Support students in gathering evidence and use student explanations to account for how Earth’s surface has changed throughout time and spatial scales.

• Use patterns of distribution from student-analyzed data to provide opportunities for students to engage in argument about how continental shapes and seafloor structures provide evidence of plate movement.

Key Concepts 

Misconceptions 

The History of Planet Earth

• The geologic time scale interpreted from rock strata provides a way to organize Earth’s history.

• Major historical events include the formation of mountain chains and ocean basins, the adaptation and extinction of particular living organisms, volcanic eruptions, periods of massive glaciation, and development of watersheds and rivers through glaciation and water erosion.

• Analyses of rock strata and the fossil record provide only relative dates, not an absolute scale.

• Tectonic processes continually generate new ocean sea floor at ridges and destroy old sea floor at trenches.

Earth’s Materials and Systems

• 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 produces chemical and physical changes in Earth’s materials.

• The planet’s systems interact over scales that range from microscopic to global in size; these interactions have shaped Earth’s history and will determine its future.

The Roles of Water in Earth’s Surface Processes

• Water’s movements, both on the land and underground, cause weathering and erosion, which change the land’s surface features and create underground formations. 

Plate Tectonics and Large Scale Interactions

• Maps of ancient land and water patterns, based on investigations of rocks and fossils, make clear how Earth’s plates have moved great distances, collided, and spread apart. 

• Rocks must be heavy.

• Soil must have always been in its present form. 

• Mountains are created rapidly. 

• Earth is molten, except for its crust. 

• Earthquakes are rare events (media coverage of earthquakes is limited and biased to the U.S. area or high death tolls.)

• Students often think of mountain building as occurring only through catastrophic events such as earthquakes or volcanoes. They often fail to recognize the slow process of uplift over millions of years.

• Volcanic eruptions are rare events (media coverage is biased by location and death tolls). 

• Most magma forms as rock melts due to an increase in temperature (in real life this is the way most things melt, coupled with knowledge that temperature rises within Earth). 

• Only continents move. (Wegener's original concept, along with the common use of ‘Continental Drift' term in general texts, secondary education earth science films, etc.)

• Continents do not move. 

• The edge of a continent is the same thing as a plate boundary. 

• Most crust motions (especially those associated with processes of mountain building or deep-sea trench formation are due to vertical motions, not lateral.

• Divergent ocean ridges are due to vertical uplift or convergence, rather than divergence. 

• Oceans are responsible for oceanic crust (rather than being closer to the other way around). 

• Earth shaking is deadly (as opposed to building collapse, tsunamis, landslides, fire, etc.) 

• Earthquakes occur from collapse of subterranean hollow spaces (tie to older cosmologies). 

• Earth and space science have a unique aspect of scale that may be problematic for students. 

• Fossils are the remains of dead organisms. Fossils cannot tell us about  the environment in which plants or animals lived long ago. 

Instructional Resources 

Unit 3: Energy Flow and Earth Processes