March 17, 2020 Hi! I hope that you are all staying healthy and doing the best that you can during this unique and challenging situation. Rest, get fresh air (yes Cooper, we can go for a walk!), get ready for fishing season, make your pet wish that you were back in school... lots of ways to take care of yourselves while we pass the time. Please feel free to send me a message if you have questions about information that you hear in the news/social media, and I'll do my best to provide you with an insightful response. Also, don't hesitate to reach out just to check in... I care about y'all.
The resources below are provided to make you curious and to keep your brains active while we are away from school. This stuff is not required. But... you might find it interesting, and if you aren't careful, you just might learn something! If you find something cool, shoot me a message and let me know. The same is true if you find other sites with cool information or activities... pass them along!!
Interactive science websites: The sites below have lots and lots of cool information, sometimes with games. If you aren't careful, you can spend hours and hours learning cool stuff...
March 19, 2020 What's up? Hope you are all well, taking care of yourselves and taking care of each other. As you hopefully remember, we were in the middle of a unit that examined Plate Tectonics and the formation of our great state of Maine. In the spirit of that topic, here's some cool learning that is based on the "Making North America" series (we watched the first episode in class. Below is a scavenger hunt that you can try as you explore the website. You might have fun....
Making North America Scavenger Hunt!
Part 1. Explore North America on the Interactive Map to learn more about the geological history of the continent. Along the way, finish the scavenger hunt by answering the questions below and discovering the origins of North America’s amazing geological features! 1. How were the Flatirons in Colorado formed? 2. What makes up the landscape of Gooseberry Falls? What does each step represent? 3. How have stromatolites survived until now in the Bahamas? 4. What influence has geology had on New York’s skyline? 5. How did a 14-foot-long fish skeleton live in Kansas? 6. Where does the word “muscovite” come from and what was it used for? (Hint: Visit some skyscrapers to learn more.) 7. Describe how granite is formed from volcanic rock. (Hint: Visit an island to find out.) 8. What mineral brought people to Bodie, California? 9. What geological force changed Mount St. Helens from a snowcapped peak into a crater? 10. What natural elements shaped the arches in Arches National Park? How many arches are there?
**Challenge: See if you can answer these trickier questions!**
11. Where can you find evidence that an asteroid the size of Mount Everest crashed into Earth? What geological evidence is there to support this historical event? 12. What geological forces caused North America’s inland sea to disappear? What clues support this idea?
Part 2. The Interactive Map contains some incredible high-definition panorama images of locations not seen in the Making North America series. In the “Explore” section, view some of North America’s landscapes then select three locations that you found particularly fascinating. Answer the following questions for each location. 1. What natural forces shaped this location? 2. List three geological features that you noticed. 3. What is the significance of this location?
March 23, 2020 Good morning! I hope that you and your friends/families are well and supporting each other through this difficult situation. Did you get a chance to play around with the Making North America scavenger hunt? I hope so.... it's pretty interesting stuff. As you know, our current unit of study is about how plate tectonics creates the land surfaces that we live on; our goal is to understand how past plate movements created our home state. To begin this week, let's examine how certain plate motions/boundaries are working to build a different piece of our continent: the Pacific Northwest. Look through this fascinating document about volcanism and earthquakes in Washington, Oregon, and California. It has great models (!), and there is a super helpful question/answer section that you can use to think about Maine's history. Have fun!
March 25, 2020 Hey! I miss y'all. Hope you and your friends/family are well. As you might have heard, starting next week we will be transitioning back into a more structured form of learning. That means, among other things, that you will be producing both formative and summative work to be graded. Of course, we won't be in school, so the work will need to be done on your laptops and submitted electronically. To help you with your work, I'll be setting up some "office hours" where I will be available to answer questions, sometimes by email, and sometimes-- if you'd like-- through Google Meets (where we can video conference). All of that will be set up through the new Google classroom, so updates will be scheduled and posted there. Some members of the class have not yet signed up for the Earth Science Google classroom, so please harass each other with the assumption that your classmates have not signed up yet. To help us get back up to speed, I'd like to remind you about... a little activity we were working on called "Make a Geologic Map of Maine". Remember that? You were working with friends, researching different sites in Maine and recording info (on both a map and on a recording sheet). Our first formative assessment will be due next Tuesday night (March 31). What I would like to see from you is.... your geologic maps of Maine. So start communicating with your other group members, and figure out what each group member needs to get done before you can all sit down to create your maps together. All of the info that you need is in the Unit 5 section of the class website. There are electronic versions of all the documents (including a map of Maine if you need to print another), but hopefully you have your binders and class materials at home to work with. The goal is to work with your partners to combine all of the bedrock locations in Maine into one "rough" map that shades where in Maine you can find igneous rock, metamorphic rock, and sedimentary rock. You will need to take pictures of your work and share with partners. Maybe even try out Google meets as a way to work together? When your shared group map of Maine's geology is finished, you will share it with me. That's it.