HS-ESS2 Earth’s Systems

Earth’s Systems, help students formulate an answer to the question: “How and why is Earth constantly changing?” The ESS2 Disciplinary Core Ideafrom the NRC Framework is broken down into five sub-ideas: Earth materials and systems, plate tectonics and large-scale system interactions, the roles of water in Earth’s surface processes, weather and climate, and biogeology. For the purpose of the NGSS, biogeology has been addressed within the life science standards. Students develop models and explanations for the ways that feedbacks between different Earth systems control the appearance of Earth’ssurface. Central to this is the tension between internal systems, which are largely responsiblefor creating land at Earth’s surface, and the sun-driven surface systems that tear down the land through weathering and erosion. Students begin to examine the ways that human activities cause feedbacks that create changes to other systems. Students understand the system interactions that control weather and climate, with a major emphasis on the mechanisms and implications of climate change. Students model the flow of energy between different components of the weather system and how this affects chemical cycles such as the carbon cycle. The crosscutting concepts of cause and effect, energy and matter, structure and function and stability and change are called out as organizing concepts for these disciplinary core ideas. In the ESS2 performance expectations, students are expected to demonstrate proficiency in developing and using models, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, and engaging in argument; and to use these practices to demonstrate understanding of the core ideas.

More information about all DCI for HS-ESS2 can be found https://www.nextgenscience.org/dci-arrangement/hs-ess2-earths-systems.

Summary

Earth’s Systems, help students formulate an answer to the question: “How and why is Earth constantly changing?” The ESS2 Disciplinary Core Ideafrom the NRC Framework is broken down into five sub-ideas: Earth materials and systems, plate tectonics and large-scale system interactions, the roles of water in Earth’s surface processes, weather and climate, and biogeology. For the purpose of the NGSS, biogeology has been addressed within the life science standards. Students develop models and explanations for the ways that feedbacks between different Earth systems control the appearance of Earth’ssurface. Central to this is the tension between internal systems, which are largely responsiblefor creating land at Earth’s surface, and the sun-driven surface systems that tear down the land through weathering and erosion. Students begin to examine the ways that human activities cause feedbacks that create changes to other systems. Students understand the system interactions that control weather and climate, with a major emphasis on the mechanisms and implications of climate change. Students model the flow of energy between different components of the weather system and how this affects chemical cycles such as the carbon cycle. The crosscutting concepts of cause and effect, energy and matter, structure and function and stability and change are called out as organizing concepts for these disciplinary core ideas. In the ESS2 performance expectations, students are expected to demonstrate proficiency in developing and using models, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, and engaging in argument; and to use these practices to demonstrate understanding of the core ideas.

Synonyms
Earth's Systems
Plate Tectonics
Drinking Dinosaur Pee?! title on preview image with dinosaur head in a flask.
// Monday, November 27, 2023 Tom Kuntzleman
Many have asserted that the water we drink is exactly the same water that has been eliminated from the bodies of humans and animals from the past. The argument goes that water excreted from our bodies by exhalation or urine ultimately ends up back in the water cycle.
// Thursday, June 1, 2023 Tom Kuntzleman
An experiment that has always fascinated me is observing what happens when CO2 is bubbled into limewater (which is a saturated solution of calcium hydroxide).1-2 This experiment can be carried out by blowing bubbles of exhaled breath (which contains roughly 4% CO2)3 through a straw into limewater.
pH changes occur in water exposed to high voltage sparks
// Tuesday, September 20, 2022 Tom Kuntzleman
Lightning exhibits some of the most fascinating phenomena on planet Earth.
Text: Q = mcDT  The Ocean and Climate Change
// Friday, October 16, 2020 Tom Kuntzleman
For the past few years when I’ve been covering introductory concepts in thermodynamics, I’ve made a connection to climate change. My students and I calculate the energy that has been gained by Earth’s oceans as heat, using the following equation that is familiar to students of introductory and general chemistry:
Cool Earth, Hot Earth
// Tuesday, March 26, 2019 Tom Kuntzleman
With Earth Day approaching, you might want to try out the experiment published in the Journal of Chemical Education.1 It outlines a fantastic way to demonstrate the warming influence that atmospheric CO2 has on our planet. I followed the procedure and offer a video of the results.2