Sarah Miller's Course Matrix

Earth Science Big Ideas, Essential Questions and Unit Questions

Big Ideas	Essential Questions	Unit Questions
Big Ideas	Essential Questions	Introduction	Measuring Earth	Rocks & Minerals	Surface Processes	Earth History & Plate Tectonics	Meteorology	Climate	Astronomy
The Earth System is a Complex Adaptive System.	How can recognizing and understanding feedback and patterns help you figure out what’s going on in the Earth System?	What short-term patterns and interactions can we observe?	How can maps and models be used to understand interactions on earth?	What interactions create rocks and minerals?	How does the interaction of air, water and earth shape the surface?	What connections are there between the changing surface of the earth and the evolution of life?	How does a cloud form?	What interactions create our climate? How are they changing?	What patterns can be found in the sky?
The Flow of Energy Drives the Cycling of Matter	Why does the Earth look the way it does?	How can we predict if something will float or sink?	Why does earth have different layers?	Where do all these rocks come from?	Why does the Chenango Valley look the way it looks?	Are the continents really moving?	What would the world be like without convection?	What the world be like without convection?	Why do we have seasons?
Humans and the Environment Impact Each Other.	How do I fit in with all of Earth’s parts?	How do I fit in with all of Earth’s parts?	Why does understanding the size of Earth and universe matter?	How do I use rocks and minerals?	How do humans change the Earth’s surface?	How does the movement of the Earth’s crust affect me?	How does the weather affect me?	What effect do I have on the climate?	What does the life cycle of a star have to do with me?
Evolution and Uniformity Define the Earth System.	How has the Earth changed over time? (What has the evolution of life got to do with that?) How does the past help us predict the future?	How does the past help us predict the future?	How can maps and models be used to understand how the earth changes?	How do rocks change over time?	Why does Earth’s surface look the way it does?	How do we know how old the Earth is?	Why do we have the weather we have?	What can we learn from past climates?	Why do we think the Universe is old?
To Understand (Deep) Time and the Scale of Space, Models and Maps are Necessary.	What makes a good model?	How can we understand things we cannot touch?	What is a good model for the Earth?	What models help us understand how rocks form?	How can erosional/ depositional systems be modeled?	How can an earthquake be modeled?	How do we make predictions?	What factors have to go into a good climate model?	How big is space?
Nature of science	How do we know what we know?	How do we know what we know?	How do we know what we know?	How do we know what we know?	How do we know what we know?	How do we know what we know?	How do we know what we know?	How do we know what we know?	How do we know what we know?

What do you know, but not understand?