Resources

  1. Introducing Earth
    1. The Earth System
    2. Earth’s Interior
      • Under pressure simulation
      • Magnetic field strength with two magnets on string - Show that one magnet will align with the earth’s field… Then use another magnet to show how close it has to be to ‘overpower’ the earth’s field.
      • The above doesn’t seem to work well. Instead, use a compass and show how close a strong magnet needs to get to affect it. You can feel the affect of the compass on the magnet!
      • Magnetic field doesn’t always point north. Here’s the map of it. Why? 1) The magnetic poles don’t match the astrophysical poles of the planet. 2) There are anamolies in the mantle (and core?) that cause variations in it, the largest called the “South Atlantic Anomoly”.
      • Which is thicker, crust or air
    3. Convection and the Mantle
    4. Exploring Earth’s Surface
    5. Models of Earth
      • Use tablet starmap to find the direction to the north star…compare the direction to our location on a globe.
      • More complicated: Find the direction to the sun, compare with time of day + day of year…how does this change by latitude.
    6. Topographic Maps
      • Compare a topo map of somewhere (with elevation) with the Google Earth fly around of that location.
      • Using Taum Sauk Mountain (Highest Point in MO) as an example
        • Go to Google Maps, the highest point is where the gray trail ends. In the menu select ‘Terrain’ view.
        • Go to a topo map source, such as MyTopo. Then search for “Taum Sauk Mountain, Arcadia, MO, United States” (start typing and it should auto-complete for you.
        • Another source for topo maps is the USGS Site. Here search for “Taum Sauk Mountain”, it should put a push pin on the top of the mountain. Click on it and select the “Ironton 7.5x7.5 GRID from 2000” and click the 16.06MB link to download it. This link may also work for you.
        • Open google earth and search for “Taum Sauk Mountain Overlook”. From here, the high-point should be about 450m West-Southwest of the overlook point. You can also search for Mina Sauk Falls (the highest waterfall in MO). Use the google earth controls to change the perspective so you can zoom around the mountain sideways.
        • What is the top of the mountain like…a peak? flat? (A: Very flat…when standing at the high-point, you cannot see any substantial change in elevation around you.)
        • Bonus: About 6 miles west-southwest of Taum Sauk Mountain is the Taum Sauk Hydroelectric Power Station where the electric company built a large reservoir on top of a mountain. Each night (when electricity is cheap) they pump water up into it, then each day they let the water drain out of it (producing electricity), effectively working as a giant battery. Unfortunately in 2005, due to a sensor failure, there was a major accident where the water overflowed the lake, and washed out the side causing all the water in the lake to spill down the side of the mountain. It formed a “scour” where a huge channel was cut in the mountainside, stripping off all the dirt, all the way down to the bedrock, hundreds of feet across and up to fifty feet deep. On google earth, you can see it coming out of the north-east side of the upper reservoir, and running down-hill into Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park.
      • Can minecraft output a topographic map of a world?
  2. Minerals and Rocks
    1. Properties of Minerals
    2. Classifying Rocks
      • Rock samples!
    3. Igneous Rocks
      • Compare a Lava Rock (glass/pumice) vs. a Magma Rock (granite)
      • A picture of pumice that can float on water.
      • Igneous rocks in MIssouri
      • [Youtube videos on rocks with rock flow chart] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCnAF1Opt8M)
      • [Sedimentary] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etu9BWbuDlY)
      • [Metamorphic] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oQ1J0w3x0o)
      • [Mineral Rock Anthem] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqFazOFtCVk)
    4. Sedimentary Rocks
    5. Metamorphic Rocks
    6. The Rock Cycle
  3. Plate Tectonics
    1. Drifting Continents
    2. Sea-Floor Spreading
    3. The Theory of Plate Tectonics
  4. Earthquakes
    1. Forces in the Earth’s Crust
    2. Earthquakes and Seismic Waves
    3. Monitoring Earthquakes
  5. Volcanoes
    1. Volcanoes and Plate Tectonics
    2. Volcanic Eruptions
    3. Volcanic Landforms
  6. Weathering and Soil
    1. Rocks and Weathering
    2. How Soil Forms
    3. Soil Conservation Midterm Review
  7. Erosion and Deposition - Start of Book 2
    1. Mass Movement
    2. Water Erosion
      • google maps of Mississippi around stl and south for meanders and oxbows
      • Alluvial fan pic from denali trip?
      • PBS Nova on Sinkholes
      • Mississippi Watershead
    3. Glacial Erosion
      • Patagonia pics
      • [Ice age] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jPAcTkX5Ew)
      • Photos of receding glaciers/moraines:
      • [Video Glacial Retreat] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pem4fpMwkSQ)
      • [Formation of Moraines] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkPKCWoPQP4)
    4. Wave erosion
      • Washington State Spit, hole
    5. Wind erosion
      • Death valley sailing stones 1, 2, 3
      • Sand dunes
  8. A Trip Through Geologic Time - Contrast with Genesis 1-3, explain Catholic non-literal doctrine.
    1. Fossils *45 MYA Flower in Amber
    2. The Relative Age of Rocks
    3. Radioactive Dating
    4. The Geologic Time Scale
    5. Early Earth
    6. Eras of Earth’s History
      • Forests that grew but didn’t decay
      • List great extinctions
      • Volcanoes as cause of large extinctions - Scientific American March 2016 p.65
  9. Energy Resources
    1. Fossil Fuels
      • How much have humans taken out of the ground?
    2. Renewable Sources of Energy
    3. Energy Use and Conservation
  10. Water
    1. Water on Earth
      • Which takes more water: bath or shower….Fill a bath (to desired height) with gallon jugs counting them. Then take a shower with the stopper in and see how high it gets.
      • Taste salt water at ocean ratio in dixie cups
      • Volumen comparison of Salt vs. Fresh water
      • Cool demonstration of shockwaves moving through water
    2. Surface Water
    3. Water Underground
      • Pics/vid of spring coming out of side of a hill
    4. Exploring the Ocean
    5. Wave Action
    6. Currents and Climate
  11. The Atmosphere
    1. The Air Around You
    2. Air Pressure
      • Raise a phone with a barometer up with a kite/balloon on string have it record pressure change.
      • Helium balloon in accelerating car…air sloshes like water.
    3. Layers of the Atmosphere
      • Picture of space shuttle taken from space station. In the background, you can see the different layers of the atmosphere.
      • More details here.
    4. Energy in Earth’s Atmosphere
    5. Heat Transfer
      • CO2 let’s visible through, reflects IR given off by ground.
    6. Winds
  12. Weather - Start of Book 3
    1. Water in the Atmosphere
      • Move water between beakers with evaporation (help with heating) and condensation (help with cooling).
      • Dew point measure: Thermometer in a can of water at room tempature. Slowly add ice until the side of the can starts to sweat. Dew Point can be converted to Relative Humidity with an equation.
      • Dew point graph
    2. Clouds
      • Frost on mars: picture from mars polar lander?
    3. Precipitation
      • Hail vs. Freezing Rain vs. Sleet vs. Snow
      • How much rain do we get in STL in a year? In a month/day/hour/etc? Show in 1in column….think about that spread over a large area and how much water that would be. Compare to that much over a city/state…all has to leave through the river, so we get floods.
      • Example of flood plains (https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=90171)
    4. Air Masses
      • Cyclone == Hurricane, Cyclone != Tornado
    5. Storms
    6. Predicting the Weather
      • Compare prediction accuracy: 1hr, 8hr, 1day, 3day, 7day
  13. Climate and Climate Change
    1. What Causes Climate?
      • Where does St. Louis’s weather patterns come from? - Generally the west…cold dry air from over the plains and canada. Warm moist air comes up from the gulf of mexico.
    2. Climate Regions
    3. Changes in Climate
    4. Human Activities and Climate Change
  14. Earth, Moon, and Sun
    1. The Sky from Earth
    2. Earth in Space
    3. Gravity and Motion
      • What is an orbit?
      • Why aren’t black-holes dangerous? They’re just gravity…you’re no more likely to fall into one than you are to fall into the sun.
      • Video of astronaut dropping a hammer and a feather on the moon.
      • Science Friday on Planet Rotation https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/spinning-theories-on-planet-rotation/
    4. Phases and Eclipses
    5. Tides
      • Bay of Fundy, Canada Largest tides in the world
      • [more bay of fundy] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP0cpXpw8yk)
      • [Why two tides a day?] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gftT3wHJGtg)
      • [Tides Science Friday] (http://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/spinning-theories-on-planet-rotation/)
    6. Earth’s Moon
  15. The Solar System
    1. Models of the Solar System
    2. Introducing the Solar System
    3. The Sun
    4. The Inner Planets
    5. The Outer Planets
    6. Small Solar System Objects
  16. Stars, Galaxies, and the Universe
    1. Telescopes
      • [Electromagnetic radiation Sqectrum] (http://www.sun.org/encyclopedia/electromagnetic-spectrum)
      • [Another spectrum] (http://www.workingwithwaves.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/95275-050-6ABFB771.jpg)
      • [Prism Experiment-IR] (http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/outreach/Edu/Herschel/backyard.html)
      • Prism Experiment -UV
    2. The Scale of the Universe
    3. Characteristics of Stars
      • [H-R] (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Hertzsprung-Russel_StarData.png)
    4. Lives of Stars
    5. Star Systems and Galaxies
    6. The Expanding Universe
      • Colliding Black Holes https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap151020.html
      • Gravitational Waves https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap151020.html
  17. Land, Air, and Water Resources
    1. Introduction to Environmental Issues
      • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population
      • Heat Island Effect http://www.urbanheatislands.com/
      • map of st. louis temperatures https://www.wunderground.com/wundermap
    2. Introduction to Natural Resources
      • Calculate Ecological Footprint www.footprintcalculator.org
      • http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/
      • Reduce Footprint en.reset.org/act/reduce-your-ecological-footprint-0
      • Graphs www.sustainablemeasures.com/node/102
      • http://data.footprintnetwork.org/countryMetrics.html?cn=all&yr=2013
      • http://data.footprintnetwork.org/compareCountries.html?yr=2013&type=EFCpc&cn=all
    3. Conserving Land and Soil
    4. Waste Disposal and Recycling
      • U City Recyling http://www.ucitymo.org/documentCenter/view/8743, http://www.ucitymo.org/691/Recycling
      • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOGI5WnPLZk Subaru waste free plant
      • google images - trash dump
      • living on dump https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AUhA8VVsf0
      • Recycle Jeans at Plaza Frontenac! https://www.madewell.com/madewell_feature/dowell.jsp
    5. Air Pollution and Solutions
    6. Water Pollution and Solutions

Bonus: