Museum of Science and Industry

Great Lakes Rocks (Earth systems science)

Explore the interconnected systems of Earth through our unique Great Lakes perspective, and learn how climate has changed and continues to change through time.

Program Dates
This course is next offered during summer 2016 for three credits.

Program Overview
Teachers will:

• Learn, explore and implement hands-on and inquiry-based teaching techniques.
• Learn that the Earth is a complex system of interacting rock, water, air and life – the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere.
• Explore how these spheres are continually changing and how changes in one sphere can cause change in others.
• Understand these changes involve the cycling of matter fueled by energy from the Sun and the Earth’s interior.
• Learn that these changes can be explained by universal laws, and understand these laws and apply them to our local environment.
• Study the Earth’s spheres as represented and evident in the Great Lakes region and discover how the long and complex natural history of the region makes it socially, economically and environmentally significant.

Session 1: Introduction to course, science notebook and hands-on and inquiry-based activities 
Session 2: Geosphere
Session 3: Hydrosphere
Session 4: Atmosphere
Session 5: Biosphere
Session 6: Presentations, project-based activities and unifying concepts in Earth systems science.