Grade 6 · printable course

Earth and Space Systems: Patterns, Processes, and Change

Grade 6 · 452 pages · 77 lessons · PDF, print at home

This is a full year of Earth science that keeps circling back to one idea: a small handful of causes, gravity, heat moving around, matter cycling through different forms, explain almost everything Earth does, from why the moon looks different each night to why hurricanes and earthquakes happen where they do. Your child starts by watching patterns in the sky, then works down into rock and inside the Earth, then out into water and weather, and finishes by using all of it to think about real disasters and real human choices. Every hands-on activity uses stuff you already have in the kitchen or garage. By June they should be able to look at almost any Earth event on the news and explain, in their own words, what's actually causing it.

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What is inside

Every unit and lesson in this book, in order. The same lessons are taught online at lettersanddevotion.com, so a family can move between paper and screen.

Earth and Space Systems: Patterns, Processes, and Change

77 lessons · try a lesson online free

Unit 1: Modeling the Sun-Earth-Moon System11 lessons
  1. 1.Earth's rotation as the cause of day/night and the apparent daily motion of the sun and stars
  2. 2.The taught label pairs for rotation (spin, ~24 hr, day/night) and revolution (orbit, ~365 days, year), as demonstrated
  3. 3.The distinction between rotation (spin on an axis, ~24 hr, causes day/night) and revolution (orbit around another body, ~365 days, causes year)
  4. 4.Moon phases as a function of the moon's orbital position relative to sun and Earth, not a shadow
  5. 5.Prediction of a specific moon phase from an orbital-position diagram
  6. 6.Seasons as a function of axial tilt affecting sunlight angle and day length, not orbital distance
  7. 7.The opposite-season relationship between hemispheres on a shared date
  8. 8.Scale (proportional size and distance) in the sun-Earth-moon system
  9. 9.Transfer of the position-relative-to-light-source reasoning structure to an unfamiliar orbiting body
  10. 10.Criteria for judging a model against multiple sky-pattern observations at once
  11. 11.Written mechanistic explanation of moon phase and seasonal cause, supported by a physical model
Unit 2: The Solar System and the Force That Holds It Together9 lessons
  1. 12.Gravity as a universal attractive force between masses
  2. 13.The inverse relationship between gravitational pull and distance
  3. 14.Orbital motion as a balance of gravity and inertia
  4. 15.Scale factor calculation for solar-system distance modeling
  5. 16.Orbital consequences of a change in central mass
  6. 17.Uneven heating due to sunlight angle on a curved surface
  7. 18.Transit-method light-curve data as evidence of an orbiting exoplanet
  8. 19.Comparative pattern of planetary properties across our solar system and exoplanet system data
  9. 20.Application of the gravity-inertia orbital model to an unfamiliar orbital scenario
Unit 3: Rocks and the Cycle That Builds Them9 lessons
  1. 21.Earth's layered interior (crust, mantle, core) as a density/temperature gradient
  2. 22.Diagnostic texture/grain evidence distinguishing the three rock classes
  3. 23.Conservation of chemical identity during rock transformation (heat/pressure vs. chemical change)
  4. 24.Relative dating principles (superposition, cross-cutting relationships) applied to a strata diagram
  5. 25.The rock cycle as a structure: inputs, transformation, timescale, energy source
  6. 26.Application of the rock-cycle structure to a novel, multi-step formation scenario
  7. 27.Generalizable structure of matter-cycling systems beyond the rock cycle
  8. 28.Names of the three rock classes and three interior layers
  9. 29.Validity of pathway connections in a constructed rock-cycle diagram
Unit 4: Plate Tectonics: The Engine Under the Cycle10 lessons
  1. 30.Convection as a density-driven process
  2. 31.The lithosphere as Earth's rigid outer shell broken into plates
  3. 32.Mantle convection as the mechanism driving plate motion
  4. 33.Historical evidence for continental drift and plate tectonics
  5. 34.The three plate boundary types and their diagnostic features
  6. 35.Boundary-type inference from indirect hazard and landform evidence
  7. 36.Rock cycle processes occurring at plate boundaries
  8. 37.Global distribution pattern of earthquakes and volcanoes as evidence of plate boundaries
  9. 38.A written scientific argument using historical evidence for continental drift
  10. 39.The epistemic status of plate tectonic theory (settled versus uncertain aspects)
Unit 5: Weathering, Erosion, and the Reshaping of the Surface10 lessons
  1. 40.The distinction between weathering and erosion
  2. 41.Surface-change scenarios sorted by process type
  3. 42.Gravity as the common driver of mass wasting, runoff, and river transport
  4. 43.Physical vs. chemical weathering mechanisms
  5. 44.The effect of hardness, climate, slope, and vegetation on erosion rate
  6. 45.The student's own stream-table erosion data and deposition prediction
  7. 46.Deposition as the link between erosion and new sedimentary rock formation
  8. 47.The weathering-erosion-deposition sequence applied to an unfamiliar landform
  9. 48.The claim that erosion is uniformly destructive
  10. 49.Definitions of weathering, erosion, and deposition
Unit 6: The Water Cycle: A Second Cycle, Compared9 lessons
  1. 50.The four-part structural frame (inputs, transformation, timescale, energy source) used to describe the rock cycle
  2. 51.The five named transformation/transport steps of the water cycle
  3. 52.The sun as the energy source for evaporation, contrasted with Earth's internal heat as the rock cycle's driver
  4. 53.The structural correspondence and divergence between the water cycle and the rock cycle
  5. 54.The numeric distribution of Earth's water across ocean, ice, groundwater, and surface freshwater reservoirs
  6. 55.Observable evidence (droplets, fogging, water level change) distinguishing evaporation from condensation in a closed system
  7. 56.Conservation of matter within a closed water-cycle model
  8. 57.Residence time as a function of energy source and system timescale, applied to a reservoir never discussed in class
  9. 58.Structural versus surface-feature justification within a peer's cycle-comparison argument
Unit 7: Weather and Climate: Same Ingredients, Different Timescales10 lessons
  1. 59.The timescale-based distinction between weather and climate
  2. 60.The four front types and their standard weather-map symbols
  3. 61.Uneven solar heating as the cause of air mass temperature and moisture differences
  4. 62.Front movement and associated weather changes
  5. 63.Evaporation and condensation as mechanisms of cloud and precipitation formation at fronts
  6. 64.Global atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns
  7. 65.Long-term temperature/ice-core records versus short-term weather data as distinct evidence types
  8. 66.The logical error of using short-term weather to refute long-term climate trend claims
  9. 67.The relationship between century-scale global temperature trend and decade-scale regional variability
  10. 68.A written evidence-based explanation of climate versus weather for a specific region
Unit 8: Natural Hazards and Human Impact: Living on a Dynamic Earth9 lessons
  1. 69.The underlying Earth-system mechanism (tectonic, water-cycle, or weather/climate) that produces a given hazard
  2. 70.The distinction between hazard and disaster based on human exposure
  3. 71.Risk as a combination of hazard likelihood, exposure, and vulnerability
  4. 72.Mitigation versus adaptation as human hazard-response strategies, including tradeoffs
  5. 73.Historical hazard-frequency data as evidence for future risk at a specific location
  6. 74.An evidence-based mitigate/adapt/relocate recommendation for a novel, unstudied hazard-prone region
  7. 75.The logical connection between cited hazard/risk data and a written recommendation claim
  8. 76.Tradeoffs (cost, safety, cultural ties, land availability) in the rebuild-after-repeat-hazard decision
  9. 77.Human resource extraction as an intervention point in the rock cycle or water cycle system diagrams

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