Earth Science Week 2024: Earth Science Everywhere

This page was created for AGI's 2024 Earth Science Week: Earth Science Everywhere, October 13-19, 2024.

The National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT) is proud to be a part of Earth Science Week. We've selected these resources for you from our Teach the Earth collection and other projects we sponsor because they are high-quality, reviewed teaching resources that align with this year's theme: Earth Science Everywhere.

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How do we connect geoscience to our everyday lives?

Geoscience knowledge and application permeate every aspect of our lives, from the products we use to the structures we inhabit. It provides invaluable insights into how environmental shifts impact our communities and daily existence, while also deepening our understanding of how the Earth operates.

Jump down to: Geoscience in the NGSS | Additional resources for K-12 teachers from NAGT

Featured Resources

NAGT's Teach the Earth portal is a way to access activities submitted by individuals through workshops and on their own. These featured resources have been selected from the Teach the Earth collection for particular relevance to this year's theme.

Grades 9–12 resources

Kasilof_highwater.jpg
[creative commons]
Provenance: USGS media gallery
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.
Eyes on the Hydrosphere: Tracking Water Resources

This module introduces students to the basics of the hydrologic cycle, but in a way that engages them with both societal challenges related to water and methods for measuring the water system. The data used in the module includes both traditional (ex. stream gages) and geodetic methods (ex. gravity satellites). Students also use real data to identify trends and extremes in precipitation and water storage.

Photograph of a road near Anchorage Alaksa. Large chunks of the road are broken and falling down the hill to the right. Traffic can only pass via a narrow strip of intact road to the left.
Photograph of a road near Anchorage Alaksa. Large chunks of the road are broken and falling down the hill to the right. Traffic can only pass via a narrow strip of intact road to the left.[creative commons]
Provenance: Alaska Department of Transportation https://www.flickr.com/photos/akdotpf/45266462095
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.
Geologic Hazards and the Built Environment

In a collaborative research project, students explore the factors related to hazards experienced during earthquakes. Then students will identify and address the challenges, constraints, and solutions to a community's prepardeness plan.

IMG_6255.jpg
[creative commons]
Provenance: USGS Multimedia gallery
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.
Base Isolation for Earthquake Resistance

Learners explore earthquake hazards and damage to buildings by constructing model buildings and subjecting the buildings to ground vibration (shaking similar to earthquake vibrations) on a small shake table.

Fig_8_Kennecott_Mill_in_winter.jpg
The old Kennecott copper mill in Alaska[creative commons]
Provenance: USGS multimedia gallery
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.
People, Products, and Minerals

In this module, students connect geoscience to environmental justice and economics through Earth's mineral resources. The units are divided into specific topics such as mining impacts, economics, personal decisions, and natural resource development.

Grades 6–8 resources

Columbia_Glacier_6-20-2008_Shad_ONeel.jpg
Columbia Glacier[creative commons]
Provenance: USGS multimedia gallery
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.
Modeling Glacier Dynamics with Flubber

This assignment can be used at any time in an earth science class as a hands-on activity or a demonstration, particularly within lessons about glaciers, climate change, and applications of GPS data. Students will compare how glacier models to the dynamics of real glaciers and discuss how and why they might be changing over time.

Elwha River Dam Removal
[creative commons]
Provenance: "Elwha River Dam Removal" by pecooper98362 is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0. https://wordpress.org/openverse/image/8a59568a-5440-4d44-be1b-7c990b2baf0b
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.
Modeling the Effects of Dam Removal on the Elwha River

In this activity, students are introduced to the social and scientific issues surrounding the removal of the Glines Canyon Dam on the Elwha River (on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State), and conduct a hands-on experiment with real-world application to observe the effects and consequences of removing the dam.

ribbon_cutting_ceremony_hunt_1265741368_324.png
[creative commons]
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.
Rainwater harvesting service learning project

Students will gain an understanding of the history, benefits, and components of a rainwater harvesting system and partner with community members to design and build a rainwater harvesting system for their school.

Grades K-5 resources

Build a Better Wall Activity
Build a Better Wall activity uses everyday materials such as tongue-depressors, binder clips, and manila envelopes to give learners a chance to experiment with various ways to add shear strength to a building.[creative commons]
Provenance: Beth Pratt-Sitaula, EarthScope Consortium
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.
Build a Better Wall

Students use a variety of building materials to explore how well different structures can withstand earthquakes. Optional activities additionally include assessing damage when the models are subject to shaking.

nasa-i9w4Uy1pU-s-unsplash.jpg
[creative commons]
Provenance: Nancy Chen, harvard-westlake school
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.
Measuring and recording the weather around us

In this activity, students record observations about the weather in a notebook that can be used to study changes in weather and seasons throughout the year. Common tools are utilized to collect data such as rain gauges, barometers, and thermometers.

Geoscience in the NGSS

The application of geoscience is prominent throughout the Next Generation Science Standards.

High school performance expectations

Earth and space science: Human Sustainability

  • Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the availability of natural resources, occurrence of natural hazards, and changes in climate have influenced human activity. (HS-ESS3-1)
  • Evaluate competing design solutions for developing, managing, and utilizing energy and mineral resources based on cost-benefit ratios. (HS-ESS3-2)
  • Use a computational representation to illustrate the relationships among Earth systems and how those relationships are being modified due to human activity. (HS-ESS3-6)

Earth and space science: Weather and Climate

  • Analyze geoscience data and the results from global climate models to make an evidence-based forecast of the current rate of global or regional climate change and associated future impacts to Earth systems. (HS-ESS3-5)
  • Science investigations use diverse methods and do not always use the same set of procedures to obtain data. (HS-ESS3-5)
  • Use a model to provide mechanistic accounts of phenomena. (HS-ESS2-4)
  • Change and rates of change can be quantified and modeled over very short or very long periods. Some system changes are irreversible. (HS-ESS3-5)

Middle school performance expectations

Earth and space science: Human Impacts and Weather and Climate

  • Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects. (MS-ESS3-2)
  • Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment. (MS-ESS3-3)
  • Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century. (MS-ESS3-5)

Engineering design

  • Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem. (MS-ETS1-2)
  • Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved. (MS-ETS1-4)

Elementary performance expectations

Earth and space science: Earth's systems

  • Compare multiple solutions designed to slow or prevent wind or water from changing the shape of the land. (2-ESS2-1)
  • Generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of natural Earth processes on humans. (4-ESS3-2)
  • Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth's resources and environment. (5-ESS3-1)

Earth and space science: Weather and climate

  • Use tools and materials provided to design and build a structure that will reduce the warming effect of sunlight on an area. (K-PS3-2)
  • Ask questions to obtain information about the purpose of weather forecasting to prepare for, and respond to, severe weather. (K-ESS3-2)

Engineering design

  • Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem. (3-5-ETS1-2)

Additional resources for K-12 teachers from NAGT

Professional development

Our curated collection of K-12 professional development opportunities can help you find what you need to implement the NGSS in your classroom.

Dorothy Stout Professional Development Grants: Dottie Stout was the first female president of NAGT and was active as a strong supporter of earth science education at all levels. In honor of Dottie's outstanding work and lifelong dedication to Earth Science Education, NAGT awards grants to faculty and students at 2 year colleges and K-12 teachers in support of the following:

  • Participation in Earth science classes or workshops
  • Attendance at professional scientific or science education meetings
  • Participation in Earth science field trips
  • Purchase of Earth science materials for classroom use

Grants of $750 are made annually in three categories: Community College Faculty, Community College Student, and K-12 Educator. For more information about the award visit the Stout Grants page.

Awards

The Outstanding Earth Science Teacher (OEST) awards are given for "exceptional contributions to the stimulation of interest in the Earth Sciences at the pre-college level." Any teacher or other K-12 educator who covers a significant amount of earth science content with their students is eligible. For more information about the award and to submit a nomination visit the OEST Awards page.