Earth Science | Life Science | Physical Science |
1.About this Evaluation Report 2.Content Analysis 3.Instructional Analysis
[Explanation] This section examines whether the curriculum material's content aligns with the specific key ideas that have been selected for use in the analysis. |
[Explanation] This section examines whether the curriculum material develops an evidence-based argument in support of the key ideas, including whether the case presented is valid, comprehensible, and convincing. |
[Explanation] This section examines whether the curriculum material makes connections (1) among the key ideas, (2) between the key ideas and their prerequisites, and (3) between the key ideas and other, related ideas. |
[Explanation] This section notes whether the curriculum material presents any information that is more advanced than the set of key ideas, looking particularly at whether the “beyond literacy” information interrupts the presentation of the grade-appropriate information. |
[Explanation] This section notes whether the curriculum material presents any information that contains errors, misleading statements, or statements that may reinforce commonly held student misconceptions. |
A few student questions address this key Earth science idea. Some only imply continual change to the surface of the Earth, such as, “Why are the Rocky Mountains in the west higher with sharper peaks than the more rounded Appalachian Mountains in the east?” (course 1, p. 28s), while others are more explicit, such as, “Why are dunes constantly changing?” (course 1, p. 496s). Very few student activities focus on the idea of continual change to the surface of the Earth. A teacher’s note (Extension) suggests that students draw maps to predict where landforms will occur in the future based on their knowledge of plate tectonics (course 3, p. 495t), while another asks students to predict the location of beach front property in 200 million years (course 3, p. 495t).
Idea
b: Several processes contribute to changing the
Earth’s surface. In a few places, students are asked about several processes
occurring at the same place, such as why both volcanoes
and glaciers occur in Iceland (course 3, p. 494s). In another
instance, two Earth-shaping processes are contrasted specifically,
with the characteristics of valleys eroded by glaciers being
compared to the characteristics of valleys eroded by streams
(course 1, p. 492s). Unfortunately these nice qualities
(i.e., having students compare different Earth changing
processes and having students consider more than one process
affecting an area at once) are not common characteristics
of this textbook series.
Idea
c: The processes that shape the Earth today are
similar to the processes that shaped the Earth
in the past.
Idea
d: Some of the processes are abrupt, such as earthquakes
and volcanic eruptions, while some are slow, such
as the movement of continents and erosion.
Idea
e: Slow but continuous processes can, over very
long times, cause significant changes on the
Earth’s surface.
Idea
f: Matching coastlines and similarities in rocks
and fossils suggest that today’s continents
are separated parts of what was a single vast
continent long ago.
Idea
g: The solid crust of the Earth consists of separate
plates that move very slowly, pressing against
and sliding past one another in some places, pulling
apart in other places. This idea is also mentioned in course 2. In chapter 2,
a sidebar feature in the student text briefly explains how
earthquakes, volcanoes, and plate boundaries are related
(course 2, pp. 68–69s). Plates are also mentioned
in a diagram of ocean floor features (course 2, pp. 378–379s).
Unfortunately this discussion of plate tectonics is not
likely to be understandable to students. In course 2, the
idea of plate tectonics is used as an explanation for other
geologic events (such as earthquakes and volcanoes) and
features (such as rift zones and ocean trenches), but students
are not introduced to the subject of plate tectonics until
they get to course 3 of this series.
Idea
h: Landforms and major geologic events, such as
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and mountain
building, result from these plate motions.
Furthermore, students are not involved in considering this evidence. One activity has students make cutouts of the continents and arrange them in as many ways as they can. Then students add symbols to the cutouts representing different pieces of evidence (mountain ranges, glacier features and fossils) and try to arrange them again (course 3, pp. 472–473s). Mountain ranges as evidence for Pangaea are not discussed in the text and might be confusing to students. Follow-up questions for this activity focus on how many ways the landmasses fit together, not the evidence itself.
Some activities (that appear in features such as Theme Connections, Across the Curriculum, Life Science Connection, Technology Connection, and Science and Society) are not well integrated into the chapter and break the flow of ideas. For instance, students are to report on giant tubeworms that live by deep undersea vents in the mid-ocean ridges (course 3, p. 478s); research myths, legends, and folktales about earthquakes (course 2, p. 55t); discuss the cave paintings in Altimira, Spain and Lascaux, France (course 1, p. 491t); and research the ruins of Pompeii (course, 1, p. 586t). These connections are not well linked to the specific key Earth science ideas.
The evaluation teams’ collective findings, presented below, should be taken as having general applicability to all of the evaluated materials, not complete and specific applicability in toto to any one of them.
Identified errors occur most frequently in drawings and other diagrams. They take the form of representations that are likely to either give rise to or reinforce misconceptions commonly held by students. Following are Earth science examples of the kinds of misleading illustrative materials of most concern to the evaluation teams:
- Maps that do not show the accurate locations of earthquakes and volcanoes will prevent students from understanding the relationship between these events and plate boundaries. Likewise, diagrams and maps that do not include legends, and photographs that do not explain the size and scale of the object seen, are difficult for students to understand.
- Diagrams that (a) depict plates moving away from one another, thus exposing the mantle, (b) show the mantle very close to the surface of the Earth, or (c) show plates as being a layer under the crust inaccurately represent the structure of the Earth and the motion of plates.
- Diagrams that show the melting of subducted plates are incorrect. Subducting plates are known to cause melting in the mantle, and thus nearby volcanic activity, but the plates do not melt.