In our unit on Earth's this term, we’ll be learning lots of important concepts about the Earth's surface, including:
- Changes that can occur to Earth’s surface over a long period of time include
- Mountains wearing down
- Rivers changing course
- Lakes and seas drying out and refilling
- Glaciers moving, advancing, and receding
- Natural events that can change Earth’s surface in a short period of time include
- Volcanic eruptions
- Earthquakes
- Landslides
- Wind, water, or ice can move or remove material as it flows.
- Glaciers are the remnants of very thick ice sheets that once covered all of Canada.
- Melting glacier ice creates runoff that forms and maintains many of the major rivers in Alberta.
- Earth is warming up from natural and human causes, which is accelerating the melting of glaciers.
- Human activities that can change Earth’s surface include
- living on the land
- building towns and cities
- getting and using resources
- growing crops and farming
- polluting
- stewardship
- living on the land
- Earth’s surface contains layers that have been deposited over long periods of time.
- Fossilized dinosaur bones found in many locations around the world show that dinosaurs lived on Earth millions of years ago.
- Millions of years ago, Earth’s surface in Alberta included lush tropical forests and an inland sea that supported dinosaur life and the preservation of dinosaur bones.
Students are welcome to bring interesting fossils or minerals from home to share with the class during our science class. They've already been sharing a wealth of background information about dinosaurs and volcanoes, and we can't wait to learn more!