![]() ![]() See Box 7-1 for a summary of the core and component ideas. Connecting the ESS to the intimate scale of human life, this idea explains how Earth’s processes affect people through natural resources and natural hazards, and it describes as well some of the ways in which humanity in turn affects Earth’s processes. ![]() The third core idea, ESS3: Earth and Human Activity, addresses society’s interactions with the planet. It also focuses on the mechanisms driving Earth’s internal motions and on the vital role that water plays in all of the planet’s systems and surface processes. It addresses the planet’s large-scale structure and composition, describes its individual systems, and explains how they are interrelated. The second core idea, ESS2: Earth’s Systems, encompasses the processes that drive Earth’s conditions and its continual evolution (i.e., change over time). This idea includes the overall structure, composition, and history of the universe, the forces and processes by which the solar system operates, and Earth’s planetary history. Thus, the first core idea, ESS1: Earth’s Place in the Universe, describes the universe as a whole and addresses its grand scale in both space and time. In this chapter, we begin at the largest spatial scales of the universe and move toward increasingly smaller scales and a more anthropocentric focus. In addition, Earth is part of a broader system-the solar system-which is itself a small part of one of the many galaxies in the universe.īecause organizing ESS content is complex, given its broad scope and interdisciplinary nature, past efforts to promote earth sciences literacy have presented this content in a wide variety of ways. Multiple systems’ interconnections and feedbacks. Understanding the different processes that cause Earth to change over time (in a sense, how it “works”) therefore requires knowledge of the Small changes in one part of one system can have large and sudden consequences in parts of other systems, or they can have no effect at all. These systems have differing sources of energy, and matter cycles within and among them in multiple ways and on various time scales. However, the underlying traditional discipline of geology, involving the identification, analysis, and mapping of rocks, remains a cornerstone of ESS.Įarth consists of a set of systems-atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere-that are intricately interconnected. As a result, the majority of research in ESS is interdisciplinary in nature and falls under the categories of astrophysics, geophysics, geochemistry, and geobiology. The life sciences likewise are partially rooted in earth science, as Earth remains the only example of a biologically active planet, and the fossils found in the geological record of rocks are of interest to both life scientists and earth scientists. Inquiries into the physical sciences (e.g., forces, energy, gravity, magnetism) were pursued in part as a means of understanding the size, age, structure, composition, and behavior of Earth, the sun, and the moon physics and chemistry later developed as separate disciplines. Thus ESS involve phenomena that range in scale from the unimaginably large to the invisibly small.Įarth and space sciences have much in common with the other branches of science, but they also include a unique set of scientific pursuits. ![]() DISCIPLINARY CORE IDEAS-EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCESĮarth and space sciences (ESS) investigate processes that operate on Earth and also address its place in the solar system and the galaxy. ![]()
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