ES: Earth Science

ES.2: Galaxies are made of billions of stars and form most of the visible mass of the universe. As a basis for understanding this concept, students:

ES.2.2: Describe various instrumentation used to study deep space and the solar system (e.g., telescopes which record in various parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, including visible, infrared, and radio, refracting telescope, reflecting telescope, spectrophotometer.)

Star Spectra

ES.2.3: Describe Hubble's law, and understand the big-bang theory, and the evidence that supports it (background radiation, relativistic Doppler effect).

Doppler Shift
Doppler Shift Advanced

ES.2.6: Analyze the life histories of stars and different types of stars found on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, including the three outcomes of stellar evolution based on mass (black hole, neutron star, white dwarf).

H-R Diagram

ES.2.8: Explain that the redshift from distant galaxies and the cosmic background radiation provide evidence for the big bang model that the universe has been expanding for 10 to 20 billion years.

Doppler Shift
Doppler Shift Advanced

ES.3: Our solar system is composed of a star, planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and residual material left from the evolution of the solar system over time. The sun is one of billions of stars residing in one of billions of galaxies in a universe that has been changing and evolving over vast amounts of time. As a basis for understanding this concept, students:

ES.3.5: Explain how Kepler's laws predict the orbits of the planets.

Orbital Motion - Kepler's Laws

ES.4: Interactions among the solid Earth, hydrosphere, and atmosphere have resulted in ongoing evolution of the earth system over geologic time. As a basis for understanding this concept, students:

ES.4.1: Examine and describe the structure, composition, and function of Earth's atmosphere, including the role of living organisms in the cycling of atmospheric gases.

Carbon Cycle
Cell Energy Cycle

ES.4.4: Explain the effects on climate of latitude, elevation, and topography, as well as proximity to large bodies of water and cold or warm ocean currents.

Coastal Winds and Clouds

ES.4.6: Determine the origins, life cycles, behavior, and prediction of weather systems.

Hurricane Motion

ES.4.8: Explain special properties of water (e.g., high specific and latent heats) and the influence of large bodies of water and the water cycle on heat transport and therefore weather and climate.

Calorimetry Lab
Coastal Winds and Clouds
Phase Changes

ES.4.12: Use weather maps and other tools to forecast weather conditions.

Hurricane Motion
Weather Maps

ES.4.13: Use computer models to predict the effects of increasing greenhouse gases on climate for the planet as a whole and for specific regions.

Greenhouse Effect

ES.5: Water is continually being recycled by the hydrologic cycle through the watersheds, oceans, and the atmosphere by processes such as evaporation, condensation, precipitation runoff, and infiltration. As a basis for understanding this concept, students:

ES.5.1: Explain how water flows into and through a watershed (e.g. properly use terms precipitation, aquifers, wells, porosity, permeability, water table, capillary water, and run off).

Porosity

ES.5.2: Describe the processes of the hydrologic cycle, including evaporation, condensation, precipitation, surface runoff and groundwater percolation, infiltration, and transpiration.

Porosity

ES.5.3: Identify and explain the mechanisms that cause and modify the production of tides, such as the gravitational attraction of the moon, the sun, and coastal topography.

Tides

ES.7: Plate tectonics operating over geologic time have altered the features of land, sea, and mountains on the Earth's surface. As the basis for understanding this concept, students:

ES.7.3: Trace the development of a lithospheric plate from its growing margin at a divergent boundary (mid-ocean ridge) to its destructive margin at a convergent boundary (subduction zone).

Plate Tectonics

ES.7.5: Explain why, how, and where earthquakes occur, how they are located and measured, and the ways that they can cause damage (directly by shaking and secondarily by fire, tsunami, landsliding, or liquefaction).

Earthquakes 1 - Recording Station
Earthquakes 2 - Determination of Epicenter
Plate Tectonics