critical thinking questions about earth

Activities, Experiments, Online Games, Visual Aids
Activities, Experiments, and Investigations
Ecology and Ecosystems Activities

Earth Systems Interacting - Critical Thinking Activity

Scientists break down Earth’s major systems into four; the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere . These systems interact in multiple ways to affect Earth’s surface materials and processes.

In this activity, choose the systems that are working together to create the following phenomenon.

Earth Systems Interacting - Critical Thinking Activity

High Resolution Version of Activity for Printing

Use teacher login to show answer keys or other teacher-only items., fulfillment of next generation science standards (ngss), grade 5 - 5-ess2 earth’s systems ngss disciplinary core ideas.

ESS2.A: Earth Materials and Systems • Earth’s major systems are the geosphere (solid and molten rock, soil, and sediments), the hydrosphere (water and ice), the atmosphere (air), and the biosphere (living things, including humans). These systems interact in multiple ways to affect Earth’s surface materials and processes. The ocean supports a variety of ecosystems and organisms, shapes landforms, and influences climate. Winds and clouds in the atmosphere interact with the landforms to determine patterns of weather. (5-ESS2-1)

ESS2.C: The Roles of Water in Earth’s Surface Processes • Nearly all of Earth’s available water is in the ocean. Most fresh water is in glaciers or underground; only a tiny fraction is in streams, lakes, wetlands, and the atmosphere. (5-ESS2-2)

Performance Expectations Students who demonstrate understanding can: 5-ESS2-1. Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact. [Clarification Statement: Examples could include the influence of the ocean on ecosystems, landform shape, and climate; the influence of the atmosphere on landforms and ecosystems through weather and climate; and the influence of mountain ranges on winds and clouds in the atmosphere. The geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere are each a system.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to the interactions of two systems at a time.] 5-ESS2-2. Describe and graph the amounts and percentages of water and fresh water in various reservoirs to provide evidence about the distribution of water on Earth. [Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to oceans, lakes, rivers, glaciers, ground water, and polar ice caps, and does not include the atmosphere.]

Citing Research References

When you research information you must cite the reference. Citing for websites is different from citing from books, magazines and periodicals. The style of citing shown here is from the MLA Style Citations (Modern Language Association).

When citing a WEBSITE the general format is as follows. Author Last Name, First Name(s). "Title: Subtitle of Part of Web Page, if appropriate." Title: Subtitle: Section of Page if appropriate. Sponsoring/Publishing Agency, If Given. Additional significant descriptive information. Date of Electronic Publication or other Date, such as Last Updated. Day Month Year of access < URL >.

Here is an example of citing this page:

Amsel, Sheri. "Earth Systems Interacting - Critical Thinking Activity" Exploring Nature Educational Resource ©2005-2024. October 30, 2024 < http://www.exploringnature.org/db/view/Earth-Systems-Interacting-Critical-Thinking-Activity >

Exploringnature.org has more than 2,000 illustrated animals. Read about them, color them, label them, learn to draw them.

Top 10 Questions About Earth

As space shuttles zip into orbit and telescopes peer out at other worlds, Earth itself remains a mystery in many basic ways.

In an attempt to remedy that, a panel of geologists and planetary scientists announced this week the top 10 questions about our planet that linger today, which have strangely baffled humanity and researchers for hundreds of years and longer.

"We have to look to the past and ask deeper fundamental questions about the origins of the Earth and life , the structure and dynamics of planets, and the connections between life and climate, for example," said panel chairman Donald DePaolo, a University of California at Berkeley geochemist.

The panel canvassed geologists and deliberated at length to arrive at the focus on these questions:

1: How did Earth and other planets form? Scientists are perplexed by how and why the planets formed into such distinct bodies, with only our rocky orb supporting life (as far as we know).

2: What happened during Earth's "Dark Age," or the first 500 million years after it formed? Understanding Earth's early development would explain how the atmosphere and oceans developed. One difficulty: Few rocks from then are preserved, meaning little concrete evidence.

3: How did life begin? In addition to rocks and minerals here, scientists are also probing Mars, where the sedimentary record of early planetary history predates the oldest Earth rocks.

Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter now

Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.

4: How does Earth's interior work, and how does it affect the surface? Scientists want to figure out more about the past and future of the constant convective motion of Earth's mantle and core, which triggers volcanism, mountain building and seafloor formation.

5: Why does Earth have plate tectonics and continents? Scientists wonder why Earth has plates, constantly on the move, and how closely tectonics are related to the abundance of water, continents, oceans and life.

6: How are Earth processes controlled by material properties? The big movers and shakers on Earth, including plate tectonics , arise from the atomic structure and other properties of Earth materials, so scientists want to know more about these properties.

7: What causes climate to change – and how much can it change? Deeper study of the history of Earth's climate could help scientists predict the magnitude and consequences of today's climate change .

8: How has life shaped Earth – and how has Earth shaped life? The interactions between geology and biology are key to understanding life's role in injecting oxygen into the atmosphere, mass extinctions and the course of evolution.

9: Can earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and their consequences be predicted? Scientists still don't know how fault ruptures start and stop, and how magma moves beneath Earth's surface.

10: How do fluid flow and transport affect the human environment? Scientists are unclear about how fluids move underground. More knowledge about this will help with management of natural resources and the environment.

The report was requested by the U.S. Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, U.S. Geological Survey, and NASA .