This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team and is aligned to the NC Standards for 6th Grade Science.

In this activity, students create a scaled slice of the Earth's interior. By measuring, coloring, and labeling their creation, students can see the relative sizes and differences in composition of Earth's internal structures.

In this lesson, students identify some of the features of the ocean, including a continental shelf, a deep ocean plain, a trench, and a mid-ocean ridge. Students will then draw a profile of the ocean using data points and infer the conditions of some undersea locations.

This 2-week instructional unit uses a variety of activities to provide an engaging unit on the solid Earth. Included are: a lab on density and differentiation, an activity on understanding geomagnetic field reversals, an activity using Google Earth to explore plate boundaries and their geologic features, and a card game reviewing plate tectonics called SUPERcontinents.

A three dimensional model is used to help teach the Earth's layers, latitude/longitude, and plate tectonics. Students build a scaled 3D model of the Earth from simple materials (paper, cardboard, string, and glue). The unit is broken into four daily activities; worksheets and PowerPoints are provided for each daily activity.

In this lesson, students will learn about the layers of the Earth and where lithospheric plates are located and how plate movement can affect the Earth's surface. They will also create models of the different types of volcanoes.

In this activity, students study the layers of the Earth. Then they will use markers to divide up a rock, labeling each layer and sublayer appropriately. Students can add additional details such as the amount of heat or geologic activity found within each layer.

This brief video lesson discusses how colliding continental plates create mountains. Discussion/assessment questions and suggested supplemental resources are also included.

In this lesson, students learn the key ingredients necessary to form geysers and how they function naturally. Students will build their own geyser models, while forming and testing hypotheses about the eruption behavior using different variables.

This is an encyclopedia entry for the term "mantle." The mantle is one of the three main layers of the Earth. Text for this entry is appropriate for the middle and high school grade levels. An accompanying image set provides graphics to add to a lecture on the layers of the Earth.