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REVIEW
GUIDE TO THE NATIONAL SCIENCE CONTENT STANDARDS FOR
GRADES 9-12
+ THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION
OF THE EARTH SYSTEM | + THE ORIGIN
AND EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSE
The website links below provide
a wealth of information which reinforces the National Standards
(Content Standard D) related to the origins of the Earth and universe.
These scientific concepts are expected to be mastered after completion
of a high school science program.
THE
ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH SYSTEM
The sun, the earth, and the rest of the solar
system formed from a nebular cloud of dust and gas 4.6 billion years
ago. The early earth was very different from the planet we live
on today.
Geologic time can be estimated by observing rock
sequences and using fossils to correlate the sequences at various
locations. Current methods include using the known decay rates of
radioactive isotopes present in rocks to measure the time since
the rock was formed.
Interactions among the solid earth, the oceans,
the atmosphere, and organisms have resulted in the ongoing evolution
of the earth system. We can observe some changes such as earthquakes
and volcanic eruptions on a human time scale, but many processes
such as mountain building and plate movements take place over hundreds
of millions of years.
- How an earthquake occurs with animation and narration
- Earthquake damage at corresponding values on the Richter
- Richter scale rating of recent quakes
- Earthquake explainer
- MichiganTechnological University—Everything you ever wanted to know about volcanoes
+ Link to Website
- Volcanic eruption-Hawaii
- Volcanic eruption of Mount Usu, Hokkaido, Japan
+ Link to Website
Evidence for one-celled forms of life--the bacteria--extends
back more than 3.5 billion years. The evolution of life caused dramatic
changes in the composition of the earth's atmosphere, which did
not originally contain oxygen.
THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSE
The origin of the universe remains one of the
greatest questions in science. The "big bang" theory places
the origin between 10 and 20 billion years ago, when the universe
began in a hot dense state; according to this theory, the universe
has been expanding ever since.
Early in the history of the universe, matter,
primarily the light atoms hydrogen and helium, clumped together
by gravitational attraction to form countless trillions of stars.
Billions of galaxies, each of which is a gravitationally bound cluster
of billions of stars, now form most of the visible mass in the universe.
Stars produce energy from nuclear reactions,
primarily the fusion of hydrogen to form helium. These and other
processes in stars have led to the formation of all the other elements.
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