Back to Icy Worlds: Planetary Geology

Icy Worlds – U2, Lesson 3: Landform Dynamics

In this lesson: Students will examine and compare features of Earth and Europa. Then, they will design and carry out experiments to try and recreate the features they see. They will use the observations from these experiments and other sources of information to make a claim about how the features on Europa formed.

Lesson Level Question: What surface forces create and change the surface features of planetary bodies?

20 minutes

Engage

Students examine images of landforms on Earth and other bodies and speculate on how they might have formed.

20 minutes

120 minutes

Explore

Students plan and carry out investigations to figure out how landforms were made.

120 minutes

30 minutes

Explain

Students compare/contrast their experimental models with the landforms and features they see on Earth and on Europa and make some claims about what caused the formation of the feature under study as a result of this comparison.

30 minutes

40 minutes

Elaborate

Students will consider the many different forces that shape the land using their own experiments and NASA evidence.

40 minutes

30 minutes

Evaluate

Students complete a Claims/Evidence/Reasoning statement in the MDL.

30 minutes

Extend (optional)