Learning map for Dating Crustal Rocks and Ocean Exploration

This learning map covers a 5 day period within a Unit of a High School Earth Science Course.

Summary of Unit:

Unit 5: Rocks of Earth

Students learn about the rock cycle, the age and dating of rocks on the crust and the internal energy of rocks.

What topics will be covered?

Age of Crustal Rocks

Relative Dating
Specific Dating
Radioactive Decay
Topography of the Ocean Floor
Exploration of the Ocean Floor

What overall attitudes or sensitivities should students build towards these topics?

Students should be taking on a scientific attitude based on seeking evidence-based facts and communicating with the intent to
convey information without bias.

What should students know before this unit?

- The layers of the Earth

- The three types of rock: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic
- Geographic landforms
- How to multiply fractions
- Ratios

What should students know or be able to do by the end?

- Identify intrusions, extrusions, folding, faulting, and contact metamorphism in rock layers and determine the relative age
of various rock layers using cross-cutting relationships.
 - Differentiate between relative and absolute dating and define the laws of superposition, uniformitarianism, and original
horizontality.
- Complete a lab modeling the half-life of a radioactive element.
- Create a graph modeling the process of sea-floor spreading in continental drift.
Aspect
Standard
Copy the entire state standard being
taught in this unit.
Essential question
Write a student friendly question that
is adapted directly from the standard.
Relevance in your class
What is being covered before and
after this content?
What specific skill levels-- initiating,
developing, and mastery--do your
students to have? How will you
develop them further?
Purpose for learning in your subject
area
What are prevalent expectations in
your content area for previous and
following grades?
Application to Lesson
HS-ESS1-5. Evaluate evidence of the past and current movements of continental and
oceanic crust and the theory of plate tectonics to explain the ages of crustal rocks.
How can you tell how old rocks are?
Why is the age of the continental and oceanic crusts different?
How does radioactive dating work?
This is occuring during Unit 5: Rocks of Earth
Before this five day learning plan our class covered types of rock and the rock cycle.
After this five day learning plan our class will move onto volcanoes and earthquakes as a
transition to plate tectonics.
Previous grades:
In middle school my students would have had the previous expectations:
MS-ESS2-1. Develop a model to describe the cycling of Earth's materials and the flow of
energy that drives this process. [Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on the processes of
melting, crystallization, weathering, deformation, and sedimentation, which act together to
form minerals and rocks through the cycling of Earth’s materials.] [Assessment Boundary:
Assessment does not include the identification and naming of minerals.]
MS-ESS2-2. Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes
have changed Earth's surface at varying time and spatial scales. [Clarification Statement:
Emphasis is on how processes change Earth’s surface at time and spatial scales that can

Real world application of content
How might some of these skills be
applied in college or career settings
outside of K-12 classrooms?
Unit Pre-Assessment/Warm Up
Brief opening activity to motivate
and/or to assess prior knowledge
be large (such as slow plate motions or the uplift of large mountain ranges) or small (such
as rapid landslides or microscopic geochemical reactions), and how many geoscience
processes (such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and meteor impacts) usually behave gradually
but are punctuated by catastrophic events. Examples of geoscience processes include
surface weathering and deposition by the movements of water, ice, and wind. Emphasis is
on geoscience processes that shape local geographic features, where appropriate.]
MS-ESS2-3. Analyze and interpret data on the distribution of fossils and rocks, continental
shapes, and seafloor structures to provide evidence of the past plate motions. [Clarification
Statement: Examples of data include similarities of rock and fossil types on different
continents, the shapes of the continents (including continental shelves), and the locations of
ocean structures (such as ridges, fracture zones, and trenches).] [Assessment Boundary:
Paleomagnetic anomalies in oceanic and continental crust are not assessed.]
Following Grades:
Future studies of this concept would be in either a survey of a specific geological area, a
physics course or a college level earth science class.
- Radioactive dating is used in multiple fields such as geology, archeology and forensics
- The ocean is one of the least explored areas on earth. Students will get in interact with
scientists working to map the ocean floor right off the shore of their County
Warm Up:
•​ I show them a picture of the Obama family and give them a minute to discuss the question
- "Can you sort all of the people in this picture from oldest to youngest?" After 30 - 60
seconds, we come back together and discuss, where I solicit a few responses. Most of them
are able to do this pretty easily, after which I ask "why?" Oftentimes, students point to
characteristics like size, clothing, facial structure, presence of wrinkles, etc. (there may be
more - sometimes they get creative!) as evidence for their age. But in the discussion, I also
mention that even though we know who is oldest, youngest, and their relative order, we
don't know exactly how old they are, which is the distinction between relative and absolute
dating.
I then move on to introducing the topic of dating rocks on the crust and that we will be
exploring that topic and moving on to the ocean floor.
 Pre-Assessment:
Have students fill out the know and want to know sections of the KWLS worksheet.

5 Day Daily Plan Detailed Instructions

Day 1: Wednesday Day 2: Thursday Day 3: Friday Day 4: Monday Day 5: Tuesday

Intro/ Presentation M&M Radioactivity Lab Webquest through Graphing Activity Guest Speaker and live
1. Warm-Up and Google Classroom feed to scientists on
pre-assessment: Pre Assessment: on Nautliluslive.org Pre-assessment: the Nautilus.
- See above. A short kahoot quiz to Grade webquest together
check understanding. Pre-assessment: to cover and Entrance Ticket:
2. ​Introduce Topic: traditional quiz on the misconceptions before Have students answer 3
- Tie the topic into Activity last two days moving on to the main short questions on the
the previous Purpose: activity. Some answers will Nautilus to prevent
lessons and give To demonstrate that the Activity: allow students to share misconceptions before
roadmap rates of decay of Students work what they discovered. the speaker.
culminating with unstable nuclei can be independently to work
guest speaker measured, that the exact on instructions and Purpose: ​To plot the profile The Nautilus started its
and live stream. time that a certain questions on the of the ocean floor and expedition on
- nucleus will decay website to build identify its topographical Submerged Shorelines
3. ​Powerpoint cannot be predicted, and background features. of California Borderland
Presentation: that it takes a very large
knowledge. It is like a on Saturday. The
number of nuclei to find scavenger hunt The graphing activity on primary focus of this
- Presentation the rate of decay. through a museum Monday will connect the expedition is the
given on the age except that it is age of rocks on the ocean identification and
of rocks, dating In this lesson, students competed on one floor to the ocean research characterization of
processes, will be asked to simulate website. Students we will learn about on submerged shorelines
vocabulary and radioactive decay by work at their own Tuesday. associated with offshore
visuals. pouring small candies, pace, and have banks in the southern
- Students will take such as plain M&M’s® or options on the order Background:​ You are a California Borderland
notes. Skittles®, from a cup and directions to research vessel with the region. This is a
- Use hand signals and counting which proceed. The teacher purpose of mapping the continuation of the effort
(1-5 fingers) as an candies fall with their should walk by to topography of the ocean by Nautilus over the last
 ongoing manufacturer's mark make sure students floor across the Atlantic four years to acquire
assessment of down or up. The don’t get stuck and to Ocean. The ship is high-resolution mapping
understanding. exercise they will go check for equipped with high tech data of submerged
through of predicting and understanding as an depth sounding shorelines and
successively counting ongoing assignment. equipment. You are characterize primarily
the number of remaining charting a line from Cape with remotely operated
"mark-side up" candies Their webquest Cod, MA on the North vehicles.
should help them submissions will act as American continent to the
understand that rates of a post-assessment. African continent east of A Guest Speaker from
decay of unstable nuclei For this class they will the Canary Islands. The Ocean Exploration
can be measured; that submit their work via Trust will give a
the exact time that a google classroom. Directions: presentation to the
certain nucleus will 1. Plot the points on the students and facilitate
decay cannot be Detailed instructions for graph from the chart their questions to the
predicted; and that it students: provided below. exploration team.
takes a very large 2. Connect your points with
number of nuclei to find Go to straight lines.(the slopes Teacher should observe
the rate of decay. https://nautiluslive.org will be steeper than they and take notes as an
actually are because the ongoing assessment.
Teacher should walk 1. Click on the different miles on the horizontal axis
around the room and channels of video. are greater than the depth Post Assessment: ​Have
check on students as an Describe what you in feet on the vertical students fill out the
see happening.
ongoing assessment. axis.) learned and still want to
Click on Expedition.
3. Label the features listed learn sections of their
2. Describe the
The turned in lab Expedition that just
below by using the KWLS chart.
assignment will be the finished and the one corresponding numbers.
day’s post-assessment. that is soon going to You may do this by writing
begin. the number of the feature
● Expedition listed and an arrow pointing
Post Assessment:​ Ask from Oct 21-31 to the feature on you map.
strategic questions on ● Expedition 4. Monitor for any
the presentation to from Nov 3-14 catastrophic or widespread
check understanding Click on the The Tech. misunderstanding as an
and help students 3. List all of the ongoing assessment but let
process the information different tools on the students work with the
they were given Nautilus. project with minimal
4. Which tool is the interjections.
 most interesting to
you? Why? Exit Ticket:​ Question to
Click on The Science. send the explorers on the
5. List and describe the Nautilus tomorrow. ​They
research being done will pick their best question
in Biology, Geology from yesterday’s
and Archeology assignment for the
Click on the Team
scientists on tuesday.
6. What are some
positions of the
crew? (i.e. what jobs
do they have?)
7. Find Robert Ballard.
Who is he?
Click on Latest News
8. Pick 2 news stories
and summarize them
below.
9. Based on what you
learned, what
questions do you
have the
researchers on this
boat?