Earth science, 11–13 years — 20 topics · MyLeoNes™ Kuks
20 earth science topics written for 11–13 years — not a older text simplified. In teaching order, each a deck of five cards: the idea, why it exists, a worked example, the common trap and where you meet it.
Earth science · 11–13 years
Earth’s moving plates
Earth’s hard outer shell is broken into huge plates that move slowly, changing the surface and causing many earthquakes and volcanoes.
The rock cycle
Rocks can be melted, cooled, broken, pressed and changed, so the three main rock groups are parts of a cycle rather than permanent boxes.
The water cycle
Water keeps moving between the ground, oceans, air and living things through evaporation, condensation, precipitation, collection and infiltration.
Weather and climate
Weather is what the atmosphere is doing now or soon; climate is the pattern of weather measured over many years in a place or across Earth.
Earth’s layers
Earth is not a solid ball made of one material. Its layers have different temperatures, materials and behaviours, and scientists use clues from the surface to investigate what lies below.
Erosion and deposition
Moving water, wind, ice and gravity can wear rock away and carry its pieces elsewhere. The same forces can then drop the material, building new landforms such as beaches, dunes and river deltas.
Fossils and deep time
A fossil is evidence of ancient life or its activity preserved in rock. Fossils and the layers around them help scientists reconstruct environments and understand that Earth’s history stretches far beyond human lifetimes.
Why Earth has seasons
The seasons are caused mainly by Earth’s tilted axis as it travels around the Sun. The tilt changes the angle and length of sunlight in each hemisphere, rather than Earth simply becoming much nearer to or farther from the Sun.
Minerals: Earth’s building materials
Learn how minerals are recognised by properties such as hardness, lustre and crystal shape, rather than by colour alone.
Earthquakes and seismic waves
Understand how sudden movement along a fault releases stored energy, and how seismic waves reveal where an earthquake began.
How volcanoes build and change land
Follow magma from underground to lava at the surface, and see how eruptions can create land while also causing danger.
Groundwater and aquifers
Discover how rainwater moves through pores and cracks underground, collects in aquifers and reaches wells and springs.
Soil: Earth’s living skin
Soil is more than loose rock. It is a changing mixture of minerals, air, water, decayed matter and living organisms that supports plants and many food webs.
Tides: the sea’s regular rise and fall
Tides are long, regular changes in sea level, caused mainly by the Moon’s gravity and partly by the Sun’s. Coastlines do not all experience the same height or timing.
Ocean currents: rivers in the sea
Ocean currents move seawater over long distances. Wind drives many surface currents, while differences in temperature and saltiness help move deep water.
Earth’s magnetic field
Earth acts like a giant magnet, making a shield that guides compasses and helps protect life from particles from the Sun.
The greenhouse effect
Certain gases in the atmosphere slow the escape of heat into space. This natural effect makes Earth warm enough for liquid water, while extra greenhouse gases strengthen it.
Why the Moon changes shape
The Moon does not really change shape: we see different portions of its sunlit half as it travels around Earth.
Air pressure and height
Air has weight. The higher you go, the less air is above you, so the pressure becomes lower.
Why the ocean is salty
Rocks release dissolved minerals into water, rivers carry them to the sea and evaporation leaves much of the salt behind.
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