• volume, area, mass, elapsed time, direction, temperature, pressure, distance, density, and changes in elevation/depth are calculated utilizing the most appropriate tools;

• technologies, including computers, are used to collect, analyze, and report data and to demonstrate concepts and simulate experimental conditions;

• scales, diagrams, maps, charts, graphs, tables, and profiles are constructed and interpreted;

• variables are manipulated with repeated trials; and

• a scientific viewpoint is constructed and defended.

• analyzing how science explains and predicts the interactions and dynamics of complex Earth systems;

• recognizing that evidence is required to evaluate hypotheses and explanations;

• plate tectonics;

• water in all three states;

• position of the Earth in the solar system; and

• effects of density differences and energy transfer on the activities of the atmosphere, oceans, and Earth's interior.

• properties including hardness, color and streak, luster, cleavage, fracture, and unique properties; and

• uses of minerals.

• igneous (intrusive and extrusive);

• sedimentary (clastic and chemical); and

• metamorphic (foliated and unfoliated) rocks.

• fossil fuels, minerals, rocks, water, and vegetation;

• advantages and disadvantages of various energy sources;

• resources found in Virginia;

• use of resources and their effects on standards of living; and

• environmental costs and benefits.

• how geologic processes are evidenced in the physiographic provinces of Virginia including the Coastal Plain, Piedmont, Blue Ridge, Valley and Ridge, and Appalachian Plateau;

• processes (faulting, folding, volcanism, metamorphism, weathering, erosion, deposition, and sedimentation) and their resulting features; and

• tectonic processes (subduction, rifting and sea floor spreading, and continental collision).

• processes of soil development;

• development of karst topography;

• identification of groundwater zones including water table, zone of saturation, and zone of aeration;

• identification of other sources of fresh water including aquifers with reference to the hydrologic cycle; and

• dependence on freshwater resources and the affects of human usage on water quality.

• traces or remains of ancient, often extinct, life are preserved by various means in many sedimentary rocks;

• superposition, cross-cutting relationships, and radioactive decay are methods of dating bodies of rock;

• absolute and relative dating have different applications but can be used together to determine the age of rocks and structures; and

• rocks and fossils from many different geologic periods and epochs are found in Virginia.

• physical and chemical changes (tides, waves, currents, sea level and ice cap variations, upwelling, and salinity concentrations);

• importance of environmental, geologic, and economic implications;

• systems interactions (energy transfer, weather, and climate);

• features of the sea floor (continental margins, trenches, mid-ocean ridges, and abyssal plains) reflect tectonic processes; and

• public policy issues concerning the oceans.

• scientific evidence for atmospheric changes over geologic time;

• current theories related to the effects of early life on the chemical makeup of the atmosphere;

• comparison of the Earth's atmosphere to that of other planets;

• atmospheric regulation mechanisms; and

• potential atmospheric compositional changes due to human, biologic, and geologic activity.

• observation and collection of weather data;

• prediction of weather patterns; and

• weather phenomena and the factors that affect climate.

• characteristics of the sun, planets, their moons, comets, meteors, and asteroids; and

• cosmology and the origin of stars and stellar systems (the Big Bang, the solar nebular theory, stellar evolution, star systems, nebulae, constellations, and galaxies).