Course info

First Semester: Earth Processes and Weather Forecasting. This year, the students will begin to gain a basic understanding of God’s world through a detailed analysis of earth sciences. Earth Processes begin with activities to explain continental drift and plate tectonics. They will construct replicas that demonstrates our planet’s structure and the three main types of rocks. Then they explore, map, and measure the forces that result in earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and mountain-building and model the explosive events that make plate margins. Next, they will discover the importance of accurate weather forecasting and record keeping, build weather stations (to monitor temperature, rainfall, wind, barometric pressure, etc.), plot fronts and other large-scale factors on weather maps, and differentiate cloud formations.

Second Semester: Shipwrecks and Astronomy. During the second semester, the students will wrap up their weather studies by researching weather folklore and delving into severe weather hurricanes and tornadoes for which forecasting is especially valuable students. They are then introduced to the world of shipwrecks and marine archaeology. They will learn the methods and tools used to navigate and some of the most common causes of shipwrecks and discover how archaeologists work in the marine environment to discover, map, and preserve historic shipwrecks of the past. Next, the students discover how Earth’s motion relates to day and night, the annual seasons, and the predictably changing night sky. They reproduce constellation patterns and investigate the life cycles of stars, the shapes of galaxies, and the size of the universe.