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For nearly five billion years, the Earth's surface has been constantly built up and broken down by processes taking place above and below the Earth's surface, resulting in the wide range of beautiful and complex landscapes we see today. In this unit, students will continue to make connections between the Earth's systems when they study interactions between the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere by investigating the rock cycle, and the erosional processes of streams, wind, wave action, and mass movement.

In this task students sort minerals by different characteristics, in order to learn the mineral classification system. Students then compare and contrast mineral molecular models in order to craft an explanation that accounts for differences in mineral properties.

In this instructional sequence students will explore different types of rocks as they discover ways in which rocks are classified. Students then learn about how different types of rocks are formed by modeling the rock cycle in order to explain the common characteristics of sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks. Finally, students will apply their understanding of rocks by using the ESRT to identify various rocks.