Earth and space

Earth science: systems of rock, water, air, and space.

Earth science connects maps, time scales, and evidence. Students learn that weather is short-term and climate is a long-term pattern.

The rock cycle is a set of processes — melting, cooling, weathering, compaction — not a single circle to memorize. Plate tectonics explains earthquakes and volcanoes with boundaries and evidence from maps. Astronomy lessons use scale carefully: a model of the solar system is not to scale if planets and distances use the same factor, and students should say so.