tm developed and published by aims education...

EARTH BOOK 1 © 2011 AIMS Education Foundation

Developed and Publishedby

AIMS Education Foundation

This book contains materials developed by the AIMS Education Foundation. AIMS (Activities Integrating Mathematics and Science) began in 1981 with a grant from the National Science Foundation. The non-profit AIMS Education Foundation publishes hands-on instructional materials that build conceptual understanding. The foundation also sponsors a national program of professional development through which educators may gain expertise in teaching math and science.

Copyright © 2007, 2011, 2013 by the AIMS Education Foundation

All rights reserved. No part of this book or associated digital media may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means—except as noted below.

• ApersonpurchasingthisAIMSpublicationisherebygrantedpermissiontomakeunlimitedcopiesofanyportion of it (or the files on the accompanying disc), provided these copies will be used only in his or her own classroom. Sharing the materials or making copies for additional classrooms or schools or for other individuals is a violation of AIMS copyright.

• Foraworkshoporconferencesession,presentersmaymakeonecopyofanyportionofapurchasedactivityfor each participant, with a limit of five activities or up to one-third of a book, whichever is less.

• AllcopiesmustbeartheAIMSEducationFoundationcopyrightinformation.

• Modifications to AIMS pages (e.g., separating page elements for use on an interactive white board) arepermitted only for use within the classroom for which the pages were purchased, or by presenters at conferences or workshops. Interactive white board files may not be uploaded to any third-party website or otherwise distributed. AIMS artwork and content may not be used on non-AIMS materials.

Digital distribution rights may be purchased for users who wish to place AIMS materials on secure servers for school- or district-wide use. Contact us or visit the AIMS website for complete details.

AIMS Education Foundation1595S.ChestnutAve.,Fresno,CA93702-4706•888.733.2467•aimsedu.org

ISBN 978-1-60519-042-6

Printed in the United States of America

TM


Introduction ................................................................5National Standards Alignment ..................................7Assembling Rubber Band Books .............................13

HYDROSPHEREAccounting for Water ..............................................15Hydrosphere .............................................................25Earth’s Water ...........................................................27Uses for Water .........................................................29Shake and Suds .........................................................37Sea Salt ......................................................................45The Water Scale .......................................................55Ocean Organization .................................................63Temperature Layers of the Ocean ..........................65Down to the Sea ......................................................75Ocean Motion ..........................................................83Vertical Ocean Currents..........................................85Horizontal Ocean Currents ....................................91Colorful Currents ....................................................99

GEOSPHERELayers of the Earth ................................................ 105Geosphere Structure .............................................113Constructing Continents .......................................117Plotting the Evidence .............................................127Quake Quest ..........................................................137Finding Faults with Food ........................................149Down on the Ocean Floor ....................................159Coastal Profi les ......................................................165A Timeline of My Own ..........................................173Geologic Time Line ............................................... 183Coordinating a Record of the Past .......................191Fossil Fill ................................................................. 203Geofossils ...............................................................215Major Mohs’ Mishap ...............................................227Tri Grouping Rocks ................................................243

Rocking the Cycle ..................................................249Settling on Sediments ........................................... 253Sedimentary Stories .............................................. 263Metamorphic Munchies .........................................277Cool Crystals ........................................................ 289Tri to Analyze Soil ................................................. 299

ATMOSPHERELayers of our Atmosphere ....................................307Atmosphere ............................................................315Air Stations .............................................................317Air Bags ...................................................................331Clearing up a Cloudy Subject ............................... 339Cloudy Logic ...........................................................341Classifying Clouds ................................................. 349Out Front ...............................................................351Fronting the Weather ........................................... 365

INTERACTIONSEarth’s Spheres .......................................................377Sunsational Changes ..............................................379Worldwide Highs .................................................. 387Heating of Land and Water .................................. 397The Great Moderator ........................................... 399Hurricanes and Thunderstorms ............................407Hurricane! ...............................................................411Earth Changes ........................................................427Modeling Rivers ..................................................... 429Soil Tables .............................................................. 435Weathering ............................................................ 445Erosion ................................................................... 447Weathering Activity Cards ................................... 449Chalk It up to Weathering ................................... 455Sandy Beaches ........................................................471

Materials List ......................................................... 481

TABLE OF CONTENTS


One of the fi rst steps in understanding how planet Earth works is to think of it as a system. Earth-system science is a relatively new way to organize our understanding and study of the Earth. Instead of studying rocks, oceans, or tornadoes, we now learn about the Earth’s spheres and study interactions within and among them. Earth-system science is evolving. Some people identify up to six spheres. This book will examine the geosphere, the hydrosphere, and the atmosphere. It will also address interactions among them.

Geosphere: This sphere includes the solid portion of the Earth. It includes continental and oceanic crust as well as the various layers of the Earth’s interior.

Hydrosphere: This sphere includes all of the water on Earth. About 70 percent of the Earth is covered by water. Most of it is salt water.

Atmosphere: This sphere is the gaseous layer that surrounds the Earth. The atmosphere is a mixture of gas composed primarily of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water vapor.

The other three spheres include the biosphere, the cryosphere, and the anthrosphere. The biosphere includes all living things. The cryosphere is water in its frozen form. The anthrosphere is described as human buildings such as cities, roads, and dams.

Each sphere can be examined as part of a bigger picture in that all of the spheres interact. It is the interactions among the spheres that allow us to learn more about the Earth and use that knowledge to begin to understand such complexities as weather, ocean currents, and earthquakes.

The accompanying compact disc contains all the printable pages necessary to implement this curriculum.


PProject 2061 Benchmarks

National Education Reform DocumentsNational Education Reform DocumentsNational Education Reform DocumentsNational Education Reform DocumentsThe AIMS Education Foundation is committed to remaining at the cutting edge of providing curriculum materials that are user-friendly, educationally sound, developmentally appropriate, and aligned with the recommendations found in national education reform documents.

Project 2061 BenchmarksProject 2061 BenchmarksThe Nature of Science• Scientifi c investigations may take many

different forms, including observing what things are like or what is happening some-where, collecting specimens for analysis, and doing experiments. Investigations can focus on physical, biological, and social questions.

• Scientifi c knowledge is subject to modifi cation as new information challenges prevailing theories and as a new theory leads to looking at old observations in a new way.

• People can often learn about things around them by just observing those things carefully, but sometimes they can learn more by doing something to the things and noting what happens.

• Important contributions to the advance-ment of science, mathematics, and technology have been made by different kinds of people, in different cultures, at dif-ferent times.

• What people expect to observe often affects what they actually do observe. Strong beliefs about what should happen in particular circumstances can prevent them from detecting other results. Scientists know about this danger to objectivity and take steps to try and avoid it when designing investigations and examining data. One safeguard is to have different investigators conduct independent studies of the same questions.

The Nature of Mathematics• Numbers and shapes—and operations on

them—help to describe and predict things about the world around us.

The Nature of Technology• Measuring instruments can be used to

gather accurate information for making scientifi c comparisons of objects and events and for designing and constructing things that will work properly.

The Physical Setting• The earth is mostly rock. Three-fourths of its

surface is covered by a relatively thin layer of water (some of it frozen), and the entire planet is surrounded by a relatively thin blanket of air. It is the only body in the solar system that appears able to support life. The other planets have compositions and conditions very different from the earth’s.

• The cycling of water in and out of the atmosphere plays an important role in determining climatic patterns. Water evaporates from the surface of the earth, rises and cools, condenses into rain or snow and falls again to the surface. The water falling on land collects in rivers and lakes, soil, and porous layers of rock, and much of it fl ows back into the ocean.

• Heat energy carried by ocean currents has a strong infl uence on climate around the world.

• Heating and cooling cause changes in the properties of materials. Many kinds of changes occur faster under hotter conditions.

• Waves, wind, water, and ice shape and reshape the earth’s land surface by eroding rock and soil in some areas and depositing them in other areas, sometimes in seasonal layers.

• The solid crust of the earth—including both the continents and ocean basins—consists of separate plates that ride on a denser, hot, gradually deformable layer of the earth. The crust sections move very slowly, pressing against one another in some places, pulling apart in other places. Ocean-fl oor plates may slide under continental plates, sinking deep into the earth. The surface of these plates may fold, forming mountain ranges.


• Earthquakes often occur along the boundaries between colliding plates, and the molten rock from below create pressure that is released by volcanic eruptions, helping to build up mountains. Under the ocean basins, molten rock may well up between separating plates to create new ocean fl oor. Volcanic activity along the ocean fl oor may form undersea mountains, which can thrust above the ocean’s surface to become islands.Some changes in earth’s surface are abrupt (such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions) while other changes happen very slowly (such as uplifting and wearing down mountains).

• How fast things move differs greatly. Some things are so slow that their journey takes a long time; others move too fast for people to even see them.

• Thousands of layers of sedimentary rock confi rm the long history of the changing surfaces of the earth and the changing life forms whose remains are found in successive layers. The youngest layers are not always found on top, because of folding, breaking, and uplift of layers.

• Rock is composed of different combinations of minerals. Smaller rocks come from the breakage and weathering of bedrock and larger rocks. Soil is made partly from weathered rock, partly from plant remains—and also contains many living organisms.

• Air is a substance that surrounds us, takes up space, and whose movement we feel as wind.

• When liquid water disappears, it turns into a gas (vapor) in the air and can reappear as a liquid when cooled, or as a solid if cooled below the freezing point of water. Clouds and fog are made of tiny droplets of water.

• Air is a substance that surrounds us, takes up space, and whose movement we feel as wind.

• Most of what goes on in the universe—from exploding stars and biological growth to the operation of machines and the motion of people—involves some form of energy being transformed into another. Energy in the form of heat is almost always one of the products of an energy transformation.

• Although weathered rock is the basic component of soil, the composition and texture of soil and its fertility and resistance to erosion are greatly infl uenced by plant roots and debris, bacteria, fungi, worms, insects, rodents, and other organisms.

• Animals and plants sometimes cause changes in their surroundings.

• Change is something that happens to many things.

• Fresh water, limited in supply, is essential for life and also for most industrial processes. Rivers, lakes, and groundwater can be depleted or polluted becoming unavailable or unsuitable for life.

• The benefi ts of the earth’s resources—such as fresh water, air, soil, and trees—can be reduced by using them wastefully or by deliberately or inadvertently destroying them. The atmosphere and the oceans have a limited capacity to absorb wastes and recycle materials naturally. Cleaning up polluted air, water, or soil or restoring depleted soil, forests, or fi shing grounds can be very diffi cult and costly.

The Living Environment• Fossils can be compared to one another

and to living organisms according to their similarities and differences. Some organisms that lived long ago are similar to existing organisms, but some are quite different.

• Many thousands of layers of sedimentary rock provide evidence for the long history of the earth and for the long history of changing life forms whose remains are found in the rocks. More recently deposited rock layers are more likely to contain fossils resembling existing species.


• In all environments—freshwater, marine, forest, desert, grassland, mountain, and others—organisms with similar needs may compete with one another for resources, including food, space, water, air, and shelter. In any particular environment, the growth and survival of organisms depend on the physical conditions.

The Human Organism• Learning means using what one already

knows to make sense out of new experiences or information, not just storing the new information in one’s head.

Human Society• In making decisions, it helps to take time

to consider the benefi ts and drawbacks of alternatives.

The Mathematical World• One way to make sense of something

is to think how it is like something more familiar.

• Some predictions can be based on what is known about the past, assuming that conditions are pretty much the same now.

• Graphs can show a variety of possible relationships between two variables. As one variable increases uniformly, the other may do one of the following: always keep the same proportion to the fi rst, increase or decrease steadily, increase or decrease faster and faster, get closer and closer to some limiting value, reach some intermediate maximum or minimum, alternately increase and decrease indefi nitely, increase and decrease in steps, or do something different from any of these.

Common Themes• In something that consists of many parts,

the parts usually infl uence one another.• Thinking about things as systems means

looking for how every part relates to others. The output from one part of a system (which can include material, energy, or information) can become the input to other parts. Such feedback can serve to control what goes on in the system as a whole.

• Geometric fi gures, number sequences, graphs, diagrams, sketches, number lines, maps, and stories can be used to represent objects, events, and processes in the real world, although such representations can never be exact in every detail.

• Models are often used to think about processes that happen too slowly, too quickly, or on too small or large a scale to observe directly, or that are too vast to be changed deliberately, or that are potentially dangerous.

• A system can include processes as well as things.

• Different models can be used to represent the same thing. What kind of a model to use and how complex it should be depends on its purpose. The usefulness of a model may be limited if it is too simple or if it is needlessly complicated. Choosing a useful model is one of the instances in which intuition and creativity come into play in science, mathematics, and engineering.

• Any system is usually connected to other systems, both internally and externally. Thus a system may be though of as containing subsystems and as being a subsystem of a larger system.

Habits of Mind• Use numerical data in describing and

comparing objects and events.• Raise questions about the world around

them and be willing to seek answers to some of them by making careful observations and trying things out.

• Locate information in reference in books, back issues of newspapers and magazines, compact disks, and computer databases.

• Organize information in simple tables and graphs and identify relationships they reveal.

• Add, subtract, multiply, and divide whole numbers mentally, on paper, and with a calculator.

• Keep records of their investigations and observations and not change the records later.

American Association for the Advancement of Science. Benchmarks for Science Literacy. Oxford University Press. New York. 1993.


NRC StandardsNRC StandardsNRC StandardsNRC StandardsStructure of the Earth System• The solid earth is layered with a litho-

sphere; hot convecting mantle; and dense, metallic core.

• Lithospheric plates on the scales of continents and oceans constantly move at rates of centimeters per year in response to movements in the mantle. Major geological events, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and mountain building, result from these plate motions.

• Landforms are the result of a combination of constructive and destructive forces. Constructive forces including crustal deformation, volcanic eruption, and deposition of sediment, while destructive forces include weathering and erosion.

• Some changes in the solid earth can be described as the “rock cycle.” Old rocks at the earth’s surface weather, forming sediments that are buried, then compacted, heated, and often recrystallized into new rock. Eventually, those new rocks may be brought to the surface by the forces that drive plate motions, and the rock cycle continues.

• Soil consists of weathered rocks and decomposed organic material from dead plants, animals, and bacteria. Soils are often found in layers, with each having a different chemical composition and texture.

• Water, which covers the majority of the earth’s surface, circulates through the crust, oceans, and atmosphere in what is known as the “water cycle.” Water evaporates from the earth’s surface, rises and cools as it moves to higher elevations, condenses as rain or snow, and falls to the surface where it collects in lakes, oceans, soil, and in rocks underground.

• Water, which covers the majority of the earth’s surface, circulates through the crust, oceans, and atmosphere in what is known as the “water cycle.”

• Water is a solvent. As it passes through the water cycle, it dissolves minerals and gases and carries hem to the oceans.

• The atmosphere is a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, and trace gases that include water vapor. The atmosphere has different properties at different elevations.

• Clouds, formed by the condensation of water vapor, affect weather and climate.

• Global patterns of atmospheric movement infl uence local weather. Oceans have a major effect on climate, because water in the ocean holds a large amount of heat.

Properties of Earth Materials• Earth materials are solid rocks, soils, liquid

water, and the gases of the atmosphere. These varied materials have different physical and chemical properties.

• Fossils provide evidence about the plants and animals that lived long ago and the nature of the environment at that time.

Abilities Necessary to do Scientifi c Inquiry• Employ simple equipment and tools to

gather data and extend the senses.• Use data to construct a reasonable

explanation.• Use appropriate tools and techniques to

gather, analyze, and interpret data.• Develop descriptions, explanations,

predictions, and models using evidence.• Think critically and logically to make

the relationships between evidence and explanations.

Understanding About Scientifi c Inquiry• Scientists use different kinds of investigations

depending on the questions they are trying to answer. Types of investigations include describing objects, events, and organisms; classifying them, and doing a fair test (experimenting).

• Simple instruments, such as magnifi ers, thermometers, and rulers, provide more information than scientists obtain using only their senses.

• Scientists develop explanations using observations (evidence) and what they already know about the world (scientifi c knowledge). Good explanations are based on evidence from investigations.


• Mathematics is important in all aspects of scientifi c inquiry.

• Technology used to gather data enhances accuracy and allows scientists to analyze and quantify results of investigations.

Properties and Changes of Properties in Matter• A substance has characteristic properties,

such as density, a boiling point, and solubility, all of which are independent of the amount of the sample. A mixture of substances often can be separated into the original substances using one or more of the characteristic properties.

Transfer of Energy• Energy is a property of many substances

and is associated with heat, light, electricity, mechanical motion, sound, nuclei, and the nature of a chemical. Energy is transferred in many ways.

• Heat moves in predictable ways, fl owing from warmer objects to cooler ones, until both reach the same temperature.

Earth’s History• Fossils provide important evidence of how

life and environmental conditions have changed.

• The earth processes we see today, including erosion, movement of lithospheric plates, and changes in atmospheric composition, are similar to those that occurred in the past. Earth history is also infl uenced by occasional catastrophes, such as the impact of an asteroid or comet.

Understanding About Science and Technology• People have always had questions about

their world. Science is one way of answering questions and explaining the world.

Nature of Science• Scientists formulate and test their

explanations of nature using observations, experiments, and theoretical and mathematical models. Although all scientifi c ideas are tentative and subject to change and improvement in principle, for most major ideas in science, there is much experimental and observational confi rmation. Those ideas are not likely to change greatly in the future. Scientists do and have changed their ideas about nature when they encounter new experimental evidence that does not match their existing explanations.

Objects in the Sky• The sun, moon, stars, clouds, birds and

airplanes all have properties, locations, and movements that can be observed and described.

Changes in the Earth and Sky• The surface of the earth changes. Some

changes are due to slow processes, such as erosion and weathering, and some changes are due to rapid processes such as landslides, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes.

• Weather changes from day to day and over the seasons. Weather can be described by measurable quantities, such as temperature, wind direction and speed, and precipitation.

National Research Council. National Science Education Standards. National Academy Press. Washington D.C. 1996.


NCTM Standards 2000*NCTM Standards 2000*NCTM Standards 2000*NCTM Standards 2000*Number and Operations• Understand and use ratios and proportions

to represent quantitative relationships• Develop fl uency in adding, subtracting,

multiplying, and dividing whole numbers• Work fl exibly with fractions, decimals, and

percents to solve problems• Compare and order fractions, decimals,

and percents effi ciently and fi nd their approximate locations on a number line

• Develop meaning for percents greater than 100 and less than 1

• Develop meaning for integers and represent and compare quantities with them

Algebra• Model problem situations with objects and

use representations such as graphs, tables, and equations to draw conclusions

Geometry• Identify and build a two-dimensional repre-

sentation of a three-dimensional object• Recognize and apply geometric ideas

and relationships in areas outside the mathematics classroom, such as art, science, and everyday life.

• Build and draw geometric objects• Create and describe mental images of

objects, patterns, and paths• Identify, compare, and analyze attributes

of two- and three-dimensional shapes and develop vocabulary to describe the attributes

• Make and use coordinate systems to specify locations and to describe paths

Measurement• Understand such attributes as length, area,

weight, volume, and size of angle and select the appropriate type of unit for measuring each attribute

• Select and use benchmarks to estimate measurements

• Select and apply techniques and tools to accurately fi nd length, area, volume, and angle measures to appropriate levels of precision

• Understand that measure-ments are approximations and understand how differences in units affect precision

• Understand the need for measuring with standard units and become familiar with standard units in the customary and metric systems

• Understand such attributes as length, area, weight, volume, and size of angle and select the appropriate type of unit for measuring each attribute

Data Analysis and Probability• Represent data using tables and graphs such

as line plots, bar graphs, and line graphs• Design investigations to address a question

and consider how data-collection methods affect the nature of the data set

• Discuss and understand the corre-spondence between data sets and their graphical representations, especially histo-grams, stem-and-leaf plots, box plots, and scatter plots

• Use observations about differences between two or more samples to make conjectures about the populations from which the samples were taken

• Propose and justify conclusions and predictions that are based on data and design studies to further investigate the conclusions or predictions

Connections• Recognize and apply mathematics in

contexts outside of mathematics

Representations• Use representations to model and interpret

physical, social, and mathematical phenomena

* Reprinted with permission from Principles and Standards for School Mathematics, 2000 by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. All rights reserved.


Topic Ocean fl oor topography

Key QuestionWhat are some of the features of the ocean fl oor?

Learning GoalsStudents will:• identify some of the features on the ocean fl oor, and• trace a profi le of a section of the Atlantic Ocean fl oor.

Guiding DocumentsProject 2061 Benchmarks• Geometric fi gures, number sequences, graphs, dia-

grams, sketches, number lines, maps, and stories can be used to represent objects, events, and processes in the real world, although such representations can never be exact in every detail.

• Use numerical data in describing and comparing objects and events.

NRC Standard• Lithospheric plates on the scales of continents and

oceans constantly move at rates of centimeters per year in response to movements in the mantle. Major geological events, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and mountain building, result from these plate motions.

NCTM Standards 2000*• Make and use coordinate systems to specify locations

and to describe paths• Represent data using tables and graphs such as line

plots, bar graphs, and line graphs

MathWhole number operations decimalsGeometry coordinate plottingData analysis line graphing

Science Earth science geology plate tectonics

Social ScienceGeography continents and oceans

Integrated Processes ObservingComparing and contrastingInterpreting dataRelating

MaterialsColored pencils or crayons

Background Information The Earth’s crust covers the entire planet. The continental crust, containing the landmasses, cov-ers roughly one-third of the Earth. It is about 29 to 40 km (18 to 25 mi) thick and composed largely of granite. The oceanic crust, underneath water, covers two-thirds of the Earth. It is only about fi ve to 10 km (three to six mi) thick and made mostly of basalt. The most noticeable feature on the ocean fl oor is a 50,000-km (31,000-mi) mountain range that winds through the Earth’s oceans like the seam on a base-ball. It rises 3000 meters or more (almost 10,000 ft) above the ocean fl oor, taller than many mountains on the continental crust. Scientists believe the mid-ocean ridge is evidence that the Earth’s crust is split into large plates. The ridge defi nes some of the plates’ edges. Earthquake and volcanic activity along the ridge add to this evidence. Past and recent volcanic eruptions in Iceland, which lies on the ridge, are just one example. Students can see the similar patterns when they compare the ridge map to the earthquake/volcano map. The plates at the mid-ocean ridge are spread-ing apart, about 2.5 centimeters per year along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Seafl oor spreading can form a rift valley in the crest of the ridge, as the profi le in this activity shows. Scientists think molten rock from the mantle is oozing upward or erupting into the widening split between the plates, forming new crust. The Puerto Rico Trench is the deepest place in the Atlantic Ocean, 8600 meters below sea level. How-ever, the Marianas Trench in the Pacifi c Ocean is even deeper, just over 11,000 meters below sea level.

EARTHBOOK 160 © 2011 AIMS Education Foundation

Management 1. Studentsneedtohavesomeexperiencewiththe

conceptofnegativenumbers. 2. TheactivityFindingFaultswithFood should be

completedbeforedoingthisactivity.

Procedure 1. AsktheKeyQuestion and state the LearningGoals. 2. Discuss with the students what they think the

bottomoftheoceanfloormaylooklike. 3. Explainthattheywillbemappingasectionofthe

AtlanticOceanfloor.Thiswillroughlyfollowoneof the voyages of Christopher Columbus back in the1490s.

4. Distributethegraphingsheet. 5. Readthedirections.Pointouttothestudentsthat

the negative numbers are used to show depth belowsealevel(0kmelevation).

6. Guidethestudents inplottingthepoints.Sincethey are used to plotting in a positive relation-ship,cautionthemtobecarefulaboutmarkingdepthssuchas–4.5km.Thedotwillbebelowthe–4kmandabovethe–5km.

7. Discusswhattheynoticeabouttheprofileaftertheyhaveconnectedallthepoints.Pointoutthehighpointinthecenter.DirectthemtolabelthisastheMid-Atlanticridge.

8. Havethemlocatethedeepestpointontheprofile.TellthemtolabelthisthePuertoRicoTrench.

9. Discusshowthesetwofeaturesformedbasedonwhat they learned from the activity Earth Con-structionZone.

10. PointouttheregionnearCardiz,SpainandtheDominicanRepublic.Tellthemtolabelthissmallregion the continentalshelf.

11. Pointouttheslopingsectionontheprofilebesideeach shelf is called the continentalslope.

12. Distribute the Ocean Ridge Map. Direct the students to label the continents and oceans on themap.

13. Discuss any similar patterns that they findbetween the OceanRidgeMap and the seafloor maptheycreated.

Connecting Learning 1. What features did you identify on the profile?

[continental shelf and continental slope at each end,deeptrench,mountains]

2. On theOcean RidgeMap, where is the ocean floor you plotted? [in the Atlantic Ocean, be-tweentheDominicanRepublicandSpain]

3.Where do you think the Mid-Atlantic Ridge getsitsname?[inthemiddleoftheAtlantic,aboutthesamedistancefromthecontinentsoneitherside]

4. Describethelocationofotheroceanridges. 5. Whywasitnecessarytousenegativenumbers

intheplottingoftheoceanprofile? 6. Whatareyouwonderingnow?

Extensions 1. ShowavideoorDVDonthetopographyofthe

oceanfloor. 2. Have students studya reliefmapof theocean

flooronawallmap,inanatlasorencyclopedia,on a poster, or on the Internet. One Internetsource currently available: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/2minrelief.html

* Reprinted with permission fromPrinciplesandStandards forSchoolMathematics, 2000 by the National Council of Teachers ofMathematics.Allrightsreserved.


Key Question

Learning Goals

What are some of the features of the ocean fl oor?

• identify some of the features on the ocean fl oor, and

• trace a profi le of a section of the Atlantic Ocean fl oor.

Students will:Students will:


OC

EA

N

AT

LA

NT

IC

-8

-9

-7

-6

-5

-4

-3

-2

-1 0 Depth in Kilometers

Dom

inic

an R

epub

lic

Cad

iz, S

pain

-8

-9

-7

-6

-5

-4

-3

-2

-1 0

abou

t 640

0 km

or

4000

mile

s

1 2

3 4

5 6

7 8

9 10

11

12 1

3 14

15

16

17

18

19

Poi

nt

Oce

an f

loor

dep

th

1 ab

ove

sea

leve

l

abov

e se

a le

vel

19 2

-0.2

km

3

-2.0

km

5 -8

.6 k

m

6 -8

.5 k

m

7 -5

.5 k

m

4 -3

.0 k

m

8 -4

.5 k

m

9 -3

.5 k

m

10

-2.7

km

11

-3

.1 k

m

12

-2.6

km

13

-3

.3 k

m

14

-5.4

km

15

-5

.5 k

m

16

-3.0

km

17

-2

.0 k

m

18

-0.3

km

Poin

ts

OC

EA

N

AT

LA

NT

IC

abou

t 640

0 km

or

4000

mile

s

Col

um

bus

trav

eled

fro

m S

pai

n t

o th

e D

omin

ican

Rep

ublic

in s

earc

h o

f a

route

to

the

Eas

t In

die

s, t

hou

gh h

is r

oute

was

not

the

stra

ight

line

we

are

map

pin

g. L

ittl

e did

he

know

what

was

under

nea

th h

is s

hip

. U

se

the

table

to

plo

t th

e poi

nts

. C

onnec

t th

e poi

nts

. La

bel

the

Puer

to R

ico

Tren

ch a

nd t

he

Mid

-Atl

anti

c R

idge

. C

olor

the

par

t th

at is

wat

er b

lue.


0˚15˚N

30˚N

45˚N

60˚N

75˚N

15˚S

30˚S

45˚S

0˚15

˚W30

˚W45

˚W60

˚W90

˚W75

˚W10

5˚W

120˚

W13

5˚W

150˚

W16

5˚W

15˚E

30˚E

45˚E

60˚E

90˚E

75˚E

105˚

E12

0˚E

135˚

E15

0˚E

165˚

E

1000

Kilo

met

ers

Scal

e at

0°N

0°E

Oce

an R

idge

Map


LLEARNING

LEARNING

CONNECTING

CONNECTING

Connecting Learning

1. What features did you identify on the profi le?

2. On the Ocean Ridge Map, where is the ocean fl oor you plotted?

3. Where do you think the Mid-Atlantic Ridge gets its name?

4. Describe the location of other ocean ridges.

5. Why was it necessary to use negative numbers in the plotting of the ocean profi le?

6. What are you wondering now?