Sessions

 

Session 1: Isostasy

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will describe isostasy.

Students will identify and describe the seven seas as defined by the explorers of the 15th century: The Red Sea, The Mediterranean Sea, The Persian Gulf, The Blank Sea, The Adriatic Sea, The Caspian Sea and The Indian Ocean.

Students will examine the differences between oceans and seas.

Students will compare/contrast of the ocean depths. 

Students will compare/contrast oceans to land.  

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Session 2: The Formation of Earth's Oceans and Atmosphere

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will survey the formation of our solar system and planets.  

Students will compare/contrast protoearth and Earth. 

Students will examine Earth's internal structure. 

Students will compare/contrast oceanic and continental crust. 

Students will describe how the Earth's atmosphere and oceans formed. 

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Session 3: Plate Tectonics

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will identify Alfred Wegener and why he is important to plate tectonics. 

Students will analyze paleogeographic reconstructions of Earth. 

Students will analyze the evidence that proves continental drift occurs. 

Students will examine the importance of ophiolites. 

Students will identify different plate boundaries. 

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Session 4: Ocean Floor Landscapes

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will investigate the growth of ocean basins.

Students will analyze seafloor spreading. 

Students will examine the history of bathymetry and why it is important to oceanography. 

Students will describe the three large physiographic provinces - midocean ridges, continental margins and deep-ocean basins. 

Students will identify continental shelf, continental slope, continental rise, abyssal plains, abyssal hills, seamounts, deep sea trenches, rift valley, faulting, transform faults, and fracture zones. 

Students will investigate how geologists use echo sounding, sidescan sonar, seismic reflection and seismic refraction to map the ocean floor. 

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Session 5: Marine Sediments

LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

Students will analyze the characteristics of different types of marine sediments. 

Students will describe how marine sediments are collected and what historical events they reveal.  

Students will describe how different types of marine sediments are formed. 

Students will classify marine sediments based on grain size. 

Students will identify the resources that marine sediments provide.

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