Science 9 Final Exam Study GuideSpring 2013

The final exam, all multiple-choice, is worth 20% of your overall grade. The content tested on this exam includes all of your notes, handouts, and labs from the beginning of Term II. What follows is a guide only—things may appear on the exam that are not mentioned here specifically, and things may be mentioned here but may not appear on the exam.

Unit 6: Clues to the Past

Relative Dating Resources:

  1. Text: Section 12.1: Discovering Earth’s History p. 336
  2. Notes: Reading and Note-taking guide
  3. Labs/Activities: Law of Superposition, Determining Relative Ages of Rocks, Drawing Rock Diagrams/Rock Interpretation
  4. Handouts: How Can Rocks Fold? How Can the Earth’s Crust Break?

Relative Dating Key Concepts:

  1. Describe the difference between an anticline and a syncline
  2. Identify a reverse fault and a normal fault
  3. Describe the principle of uniformitarianism
  4. Describe the key principles of relative dating, including the Law of Superposition, the Principle of Orginal Horizontality, and the Principle of Cross-Cutting Relationships
  5. Explain what inclusions are and the role they play in the relative dating of rock layers
  6. Define an unconformity and describe the different types of unconformities, including angular unconformities, disconformities, and nonconformities.
  7. Be able to read the rock record in order to write the geologic history of an area.

Absolute Dating Resources:

A.Text: Section 12.3: Dating with Radioactivity p. 347

  1. Notes: Reading and Note-taking guide
  2. Labs/Activities: Half-life Property of a Radioactive Element, Geologic Time
  3. Handouts: Half-life problems

Absolute Dating Key Concepts:

1.Describe how radioactive decay of elements allows scientists to determine the absolute age of a rock or fossil

  1. Know the difference between a radioactive parent and its stable daughter product
  2. Describe radiocarbon dating and its limitations in determining the age of fossils
  3. Calculate the age of a fossil using the half-life of an element
  4. Interpret the geologic history of an area and determine the ages of rocks

Unit 5: Plate Tectonics

Continental Drift Resources:

  1. Text: Section 9.1: Continental Drift
  2. Notes: Continental Drift; timeline of the development of the idea of continental drift
  3. Labs: Creating Pangaea ; Mystery of Far-Flung Fossils
  4. Handouts: The Story Behind the Science: Continents—A Jigsaw Puzzle with No Mechanism; Evidence for Continental Drift (fill-in-the-blanks)

Continental Drift Key Concepts:

  1. Describe Wegener’s idea of continental drift.
  2. List and explain the evidence behind Wegener’s theory of continental drift. Be sure to explain how the evidence supports Wegener’s theory.
  3. Explain why Wegener’s fit of the continents was not perfect.
  4. Explain the criticism Wegener faced regarding his idea.
  5. Describe how and when the continent of Pangaea separated over time
  6. Describe the principle of uniformitarianism and how it refuted early ideas that explained similar coastlines

Structure of Inner Earth Resources:

  1. Text: Section 8.4: Earth’s layered Structure
  2. Notes: Structure of Inner Earth;
  3. Labs: Pizza Slice Earth
  4. Handouts: Do Now: How do we know of what our inner Earth consists; Inferred properties of Earth’s Interior

Structure of Inner Earth Key Concepts:

  1. Draw and label the different layers of inner Earth—know if they are solid/liquid and what they contain
  2. List the two types of crust and their relative densities
  3. Describe the differences between P-waves and S-waves
  4. Explain the data that leads to the inferences of what our inner Earth consists?
  5. Generally describe what happens to density, pressure and temperature as you descend toward the core.

Plate Tectonics Resources:

  1. Text: Section 9.2 Plate Tectonics, 9.3 Actions at Plate Boundaries and 9.4Testing Plate Tectonics
  2. Notes: Reading Guide
  3. Labs: Case of the Split Personality, Plate Boundaries Mapping Activity

Plate Tectonics Key Concepts:

  1. Explain the Theory of Plate Tectonics
  2. Explain how the theory of plate tectonics differs from the theory of continental drift
  3. Describe the final evidence that proved Wegener’s theory
  4. Describe the 3 different types of plate boundaries and what occurs at each type, including what occurs on the surface (remember there are 3 types of convergent plate boundaries and two types of divergent plate boundaries also).
  5. Give examples of where each type of plate boundary are found
  6. Explain how the Hawaiian Islands were formed
  7. Calculate the rate of plate movement.
  8. Explain what causes plates to move

Earthquakes and Volcanoes Resources:

  1. Text: 8.1 What is an Earthquake? 8.2 Measuring Earthquakes; 10.1 The Nature of Volcanic Eruptions; 10.3 Plate Tectonics and Igneous Activity
  2. Notes: Reading and Note-taking Guide; charts comparing magma types and volcano types, volcano notes
  3. Labs: Locating an Earthquake and Determining Magnitude; Magma Characteristics and Eruptions, Earthquakes/Volcanoes: Reading the Warning Signs, Volcanic Hazards, Virtual Earthquake; Determining How Fast Some Crustal Plates Move
  4. Handouts: travel-time curve, What determines the impact of an earthquake (online reading);

Earthquakes and Volcanoes Key Concepts

  1. Define an earthquake using the terms focus and epicenter
  2. Describe the relationship between earthquakes, volcanoes, and plate tectonics
  3. Compare the 3 types of seismic waves in terms of speed, arrival time, type of wave, and what material the wave travels through
  4. Identify the three major earthquake and volcanic zones
  5. List the factors that determine the impact of an earthquake on an area
  6. Explain what the Richter Scale is, what it is based upon, and what type of scale it is
  7. Describe the factors that affect the type of volcanic eruptions that take place
  8. Describe the relationship between chemical composition of magma and the type of eruption, including viscosity, silica content, dissolved gases
  9. Compare the three main types of volcanoes in terms of their size, their location, and the materials they eject
Unit 4: Soil

Soil Resources:

A. Text: Section 5.2 Soil

  1. Notes: Reading and note-taking guide for section 5.2; causes/effects/solutions to the Dust Bowl; types of soil conservation methods
  2. Labs: #4-Determining Soil Texture;
  3. Handouts: Soil profile; using a soil triangle; Surviving the Dust Bowl video guide; What caused drought in the 1930s and could it happen again; Weathering and Soil: The Dust Bowl; Humans and the Land; review worksheet: soil

Soil Key Concepts:

  1. Define soil in terms of it’s composition (what’s in it), texture, and structure.
  2. List and describe the factors that influence soil formation.
  3. Draw a soil profile, label the layers, and describe what is in each layer.
  4. List and explain the human activities that accelerate the rates of soil erosion.
  5. Calculate the texture of a soil sample given that the sand layer is 10 mm, the clay layer is 15 mm and the silt layer is 5 mm.
  6. Compare how different soils drain water.
  7. List the factors that contributed to the Dust Bowl and the effects of those factors.
  8. List and describe the soil conservation methods we discussed in class. Be sure to explain how these methods save or conserve soil.

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