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PhET Interactive Simulations: Earth Science
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PhET's excellent simulations, which let students visualize and take an active role in controlling complex scientific phenomena, have a place in earth science classes and units across the K-12 spectrum. From illustrating astronomy and gravity to demonstrating fluid dynamics and material properties (to more concrete phenomena such as glaciers, plate tectonics, and the greenhouse effect), there's almost certainly a simulation that will fit into your lessons.
Before turning to videos and diagrams to show off earth sciences, it's worth checking out PhET for a more dynamic experience. Let students get their hands on these and they'll quickly internalize tricky concepts. If you need some ideas, check out the teacher-prepared lesson plans, labs, and guides that accompany each simulation.
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Key Standards Supported
Earth’s Place in the Universe
- 1-ESS1-1
Use observations of the sun, moon, and stars to describe patterns that can be predicted.
- 2-ESS1-1
Use information from several sources to provide evidence that Earth events can occur quickly or slowly.
- 4-ESS1-1
Identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time.
- MS-ESS1-1
Develop and use a model of the Earth-sun-moon system to describe the cyclic patterns of lunar phases, eclipses of the sun and moon, and seasons.
- MS-ESS1-2
Develop and use a model to describe the role of gravity in the motions within galaxies and the solar system.
- HS-ESS1-4
Use mathematical or computational representations to predict the motion of orbiting objects in the solar system.
- HS-ESS1-5
Evaluate evidence of the past and current movements of continental and oceanic crust and the theory of plate tectonics to explain the ages of crustal rocks.
Earth’s Systems
- 4-ESS2-1
Make observations and/or measurements to provide evidence of the effects of weathering or the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, or vegetation.
- MS-ESS2-2
Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth’s surface at varying time and spatial scales.
Matter and Its Interactions
- MS-PS1-4
Develop a model that predicts and describes changes in particle motion, temperature, and state of a pure substance when thermal energy is added or removed.
Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions
- 3-PS2-2
Make observations and/or measurements of an object’s motion to provide evidence that a pattern can be used to predict future motion.
Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer
- 1-PS4-1
Plan and conduct investigations to provide evidence that vibrating materials can make sound and that sound can make materials vibrate.
- 1-PS4-2
Make observations to construct an evidence-based account that objects can be seen only when illuminated.
- 1-PS4-3
Plan and conduct an investigation to determine the effect of placing objects made with different materials in the path of a beam of light.
- 4-PS4-1
Develop a model of waves to describe patterns in terms of amplitude and wavelength and that waves can cause objects to move.
- 4-PS4-2
Develop a model to describe that light reflecting from objects and entering the eye allows objects to be seen.
- MS-PS4-1
Use mathematical representations to describe a simple model for waves that includes how the amplitude of a wave is related to the energy in a wave.
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