Bring Science Alive! Planet Earth Program Highlight
Bring Science Alive! Planet Earth is a program built from the ground up to align to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the Common Core Standards.
Students will learn about planet Earth by examining how complex systems change over space and time. Students will investigate how Earth's four systems--the geosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere-- change and interact. They will examine rock samples to discover how Earth's three rock types continuously cycle from one type to another. They will build a model in a plastic container to show how water cycles through Earth's systems. Students will play a classroom game called "Who Stole the Triceratops Egg?" that will challenge them to analyze evidence found in fossils. And students will travel to Placerville, California, to design and test bridges to withstand natural disasters such as flooding, earthquakes, and landslides.
Students will finish this program wi ha newfound appreciation for how complex and interrelated Earth's systems are. They will never look at a rushing river, a rocky hillside, or a fault line across a landscape the same way again. Students will understand these, and hundreds of other natural phenomena on Earth, at a much, much deeper level.