Digital Unit Plan Goals, Objectives and Assessments

Unit Title: Shaping Earths Surface

Name: Arnel Redoblado

Content Area: Geoscience

Grade Level: 9th-11th

Next Generation Science Standards/Performance Expectations

HSESS3-1.

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.[Clarification Statement: Examples of key natural
resources include access to fresh water (such as rivers, lakes, and groundwater), regions of fertile soils such as river deltas,
and high concentrations of minerals and fossil fuels. Examples of natural hazards can be from interior processes (such as
volcanic eruptions and earthquakes), surface processes (such as tsunamis, mass wasting and soil erosion), and severe weather
(such as hurricanes, floods, and droughts). Examples of the results of changes in climate that can affect populations or drive
mass migrations include changes to sea level, regional patterns of temperature and precipitation, and the types of crops and
livestock that can be raised.]

HSESS2-5.

Plan and conduct an investigation of the properties of water and its effects on Earth materials and surface processes.
[Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on mechanical and chemical investigations with water and a variety of solid materials to
provide the evidence for connections between the hydrologic cycle and system interactions commonly known as the rock
cycle. Examples of mechanical investigations include stream transportation and deposition using a stream table, erosion using
variations in soil moisture content, or frost wedging by the expansion of water as it freezes. Examples of chemical
investigations include chemical weathering and recrystallization (by testing the solubility of different materials) or melt
generation (by examining how water lowers the melting temperature of most solids).]

HSESS3-5.

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. [Clarification Statement:
Examples of evidence, for both data and climate model outputs, are for climate changes (such as precipitation and
temperature) and their associated impacts (such as on sea level, glacial ice volumes, or atmosphere and ocean composition).]
[Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to one example of a climate change and its associated impacts.]

HSETS1-3.

Evaluate a solution to a complex real-world problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs that account for a
range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, and aesthetics as well as possible social, cultural, and
environmental impacts.

Anchoring Activity
A housing development company is looking to build luxury, cliff-side apartments in one area of the California coastline. The area is
known to experience regular coastal erosion, but the CEO of the company believes the plot of land is a safe distance away from the cliff
and will not put the residents in danger. In order to protect his investments, he hires you, a land surveyor, to conduct an investigation of
the areas erodibility for the next five years. Your job is to find out if it is safe for the CEO to begin construction of his luxury apartment
complexes and as a reward he will let you live there for free.
Anchoring Phenomenon: Deconstructive processes can often be a hazard that impacts human life.
Driving Question of the Unit
Would you live in a million-dollar home at the edge of a cliff?

Unit Goals---Describe what you want students to be able to do. For example, I wanted my students to be able to know when to use
the epistemic practices when I gave them verbal or visual cues. Students will need to be able to recognize science even if it is not in
the verbal form. See the article Outside the Pipeline: Reimagining Science Education for Nonscientists. A summary of the article
is in the appendix of this unit plan template.

To create a learning environment where students develop the skills to recognize when and how science is relevant in their daily
lives.
Students will engage in epistemic practices to examine a science-inflected social problem, with the goal of uncovering epistemic
and ethical nuances at the interface of science and daily life.
Help students identify and develop individual interest and expertise in the subject matter.

I want my students to be able see the value of learning science in the classroom and being able to relate it to real life situations. Coastal
erosion is a destructive force that is impacting all parts of the California coast and there are instances where it negatively influences
human life.

Lesson 1 Natural Hazards Coastal Hazards

Student Learning Objective:
Acceptable Evidence Formative and/or Summative Assessment:
Students will ask formulate questions and
discuss their ideas of living in a house that may
be succumb to coastal erosion.
Students will be introduced to Coastal Erosion
as a natural hazard through the Anchoring
Activity.

Inquiry Graphic Organizer:

Students are to complete a graphic organizer of their ideas and predictions regarding
the anchoring activ ity. They are to view a short video and dissect a text that will
inform them of the reality of the scenario. In the graphic organizer, students are
expected to peak their interest, ask questions, and engage with the content.
News Article Text Dissection/Annotation:
The news article ties directly to the short video, and students will work to dissect and

annotate the text. They will be looking to highlight possible causes of coastal erosion,
how its impacting the people, and at what rate it is progressing in.

Lesson 2 Mechanical Weathering

Student Learning Objective:
Students will investigate and
experiment with different forms of
mechanical weathering.
Students are to design and conduct
an experiment in which they are
exploring different methods and rates
of mechanical weathering. They are to
present their findings in a mechanical
weathering lab report.

Acceptable Evidence Formative and/or Summative Assessment:

Questioning/Listening:
Questioning and listening should be used to inform instruction on
students preconceptions and prior experiences. This assessment
should be used in tangent with open discussions.
KWL:
A KWL Chart will be used to organize students progress throughout
this lesson. Here students will record what they already know of
mechanical weathering, what they want to know, and what they
learned at the end. This will help facilitate their research questions
and hypotheses while designing their experiment.
Mechanical Weathering Graphic Organizer:
Graphic organizers will be used to categorize the different forms of
mechanical weathering. Forms include biological weathering,
abrasion, frost-wedging, unloading, crystal formation, etc, and will
feature spaces for key information to be recorded.
Mechanical Weathering Lab Report:
The mechanical weathering lab report is a guide recording students
progression into exploring mechanical weathering. The students
were to select one research question and design an experiment

based on the question. They will then perform the experiment and
record their findings, along with a conclusion.
Discussion:
A discussion should be held as a closing part of this lesson in which
students share their findings across all their research questions.
Lesson 3 Chemical Weathering
Student Learning Objective:
Students will investigate and
experiment with different forms of
chemical weathering.
Students are to design and conduct
an experiment in which they are
exploring different methods and rates
of chemical weathering. They are to
present their findings in a chemical
weathering lab report.

Acceptable Evidence Formative and/or Summative Assessment:

Questioning/Listening:
Questioning and listening should be used to inform instruction on
students preconceptions and prior experiences. This assessment
should be used in tangent with open discussions.
KWL:
A KWL Chart will be used to organize students progress throughout
this lesson. Here students will record what they already know of
chemical weathering, what they want to know, and what they
learned at the end. This will help facilitate their research questions
and hypotheses while designing their experiment.
Chemical Weathering Graphic Organizer:
Graphic organizers will be used to categorize the different forms of
chemical weathering. Forms include hydrolysis, oxidation, by acid
rain, etc. and will feature spaces for key information to be recorded.
Chemical Weathering Lab Report:
The chemical weathering lab report is a guide recording students
progression into exploring chemical weathering. The students were

to select one research question and design an experiment based on

the question. They will then perform the experiment and record their
findings, along with a conclusion.
Discussion:
A discussion will follow in which students are given an opportunity to
share their findings as a class across all research questions.
Lesson 4 Climatic Factors El Nino / La Nina
Student Learning Objective:
Acceptable Evidence Formative and/or Summative Assessment:
Students will design and construct models that
reflect patterns of El Nino and La Nina events.
Students will construct two models of El Nino
and La Nino events and draw comparisons
between them. These patterns will influence
storm weather and the strength of waves.

La Nina Model:
Students will construct a model of La Nina patterns and how it influences erosional
factors in California.

El Nino Model:
Students will construct a model of El Nino patterns and how it influences erosional
factors in California.

La Nina vs. El Nino Comparison Summary:

Students will write a summary comparing and contrasting the two storm events and
how they influence the strength and frequency of waves that erode California coast.
Lesson 5 Engineering Prevention and Mitigation
Student Learning Objective:
Acceptable Evidence Formative and/or Summative Assessment:
Students will research and design a
technological solution mitigating
coastal erosion in Southern California.

Technological/Engineering Mitigation Solution:

In a poster, students are to design and implement a strategy for
reducing or mitigating coastal erosion. Given a real-life scenario,

In this lesson, students are given a

scenario in which they are to design
and implement a strategy to mitigate
coastal erosion wearing away at a
Cliffside. They are to present the
scenario onto a poster board as well
as their strategy for mitigation.

students are to present their technological or engineering solution

with a poster to the class.

Unit Summative Assessment

As a summative assessment, students will submit a portfolio that contains the evidence theyve been collecting for the entire unit.
Included in the portfolio will be evidence of the geologic make-up of the coastline, a survey of erosional processes that may affect the
coastline, evidence of El Nino events influencing the coastline, and a design to reduce or mitigate the problem.
Useful Websites:
USGS: Water Resources Of The United States:
http://www.usgs.gov/water/
USGS: How much water does the average person use at home per day?
http://water.usgs.gov/edu/qa-home-percapita.html
California Department Of Water Resources
http://www.water.ca.gov/waterconditions/
California: Drought
http://ca.gov/drought/

Orange County Water District: Groundwater Replenishment System

http://www.ocwd.com/gwrs/
Orange County Water District: Learning Center
http://www.ocwd.com/learning-center/

Review: Outside the Pipeline: Reimagining Science Education for Nonscientists Science, April 19, 2013.
Summary of the Article:
How People Interact with Science
Individuals have different motivations for using scientific information. Factors that influence the use of science include social,
cultural, and demographic differences. In addition, the type of science that is useful differs from one problem or issue to another.
Science comes in a variety of forms such as experimentation, observational data or simulations or field research. One goal of science
education is to facilitate student understanding of what forms of science are best suited for the problems that we are trying to solve.
Students will need to understand that science is a flexible philosophical and methodological human endeavor. The sub-goals of this
BIG IDEA are as follows:
Students will need to understand the context of a problem to understand what type of methods are needed
Students will understand and interpret the scientific principles that speak to the driving questions and anchoring activities
presented in the coursework. The principles will change with subject matter.

Students will engage in ill-structured problems, defined in personal and practical terms, to practice using different principles
and epistemic practices.

Knowing Science: From Knowing the Textbook to Accessing the Science you need
Science education should prepare more students to access and interpret scientific knowledge at the time and in the context of need.
Students will need to be able to read articles and the text book, draw on prior knowledge to interpret the text, and be able to cross
reference what is read with other materials. This is not simply the application of science for a particular problem, this is reconstructing
the science in valid ways to construct solutions. When it comes to planning science for students some sub-goals of this major goal are
as follows:
To confront students with an ill-structured problem or challenge framed in an anchoring activity to extend their existing
knowledge and develop concrete solutions.
To create a learning environment where students develop the skills to recognize when and how science is relevant in their daily
lives.
To be able to cite textual based evidence to support or refute a claim (CCSS ELA)
To be able to convert a phenomena into a mathematical model (CCSS Math)
Thinking Scientifically: From Practicing Science to Judging Scientific Claims
Students will need to engage in the epistemic practices of science in flexible and creative ways. The procedures that make up the
epistemic practices of argumentation, experimentation, modeling, and the negotiation of expository text are not static but are guided
by the cycle of scientific thinking. Students will rarely need to go through ALL the steps in a given epistemic procedure in order to
engage in scientific problem solving or research design. However, students will need to make sophisticated judgments about
credibility of scientific claims based on cues like publication venue, institutional affiliation, and potential conflict of interest. In order
to plan lesson that allow students to engage in this big idea teachers will need to set some of the following goals:
To help students understand how scientists evaluate evidence and how research is packaged for presentation. Engaging student
in argumentation and negotiation of expository text does this. Note: expository text will need to be presented in more ways
then just the textbook.
To help students engage in peer review when teachers are planning an argument or negotiation of expository text.
Students will engage in epistemic practices to examine a science-inflected social problem, with the goal of uncovering
epistemic and ethical nuances at the interface of science and daily life.

To help students engage in and interpret scientific text.

Appreciating Science: From Positive Feelings to Deep and Durable Involvement

Teachers will need to create learning environments where students develop an appreciation of science and recognize how science
influences their daily lives. Students will need to connect with science though interest areas and following their personal curiosities.
Therefore, some of the sub-goals of the work science teachers do will be to:
Facilitate students pursing their own science related interest, questions, and personal curiosities through project-based; inquirybased; and model based learning.
Facilitate socio-scientific issue discussion in class.
Help students identify and develop individual interest and expertise in the subject matter.
Connect students with science resources in the community such as clubs, museums, projects, science fair, and business that
specialize in science outreach.
Use science-based games to facilitate student interest and curiosity for science problem solving. Empowering students to use
the epistemic practices in their everyday lives and to own the practices for life long problem-solving.