Rock! Pattern! Systems! UBD (Understanding by Design) Framework: Fourth Grade  
Desired Results  

Goals of the Program  

Students will... 
•	Enrich their understanding of a place through inquiry.  
•	Experience National Parks as places for learning and recreation and develop a personal connection with their local National Parks.  
•	Gain firsthand experience at Point Bonita with geological phenomena and events.  
•	Appreciate how indigenous peoples lived and continue to live in harmony with nature. 

Transfer  
•	Gather, identify, and evaluate evidence in support of an explanation.  
•	Recognize change occurs within a continuum.  
•	Explain how human and natural factors alter the Earth.  

Meaning  
Essential Question 
 
How can patterns of change help us understand land formations and human activity? 
 
Enduring Understandings: Students will understand that.... 

•	The Earth is a dynamic, changing place that tells us about the past and future.  
•	Landscapes change due to a variety of natural and human factors, both local and global. 
•	Locations of earthquakes and volcanoes are in patterns on land and sea.  
Acquisition 

Students will know... 
•	The Earth’s crust is made of large plates that move.  
•	The ocean floor is not flat.  
•	Agents of weathering and erosion change landscapes.  

Students will be able to... 
•	Analyze and interpret geologic data.  
•	Recognize patterns of rock formations on Earth’s surface.  
•	Pose questions and construct evidence-based explanations.  
Evidence  

Students will show their learning by... 
1.	Drawing and/or describing a human and geological change they see in their community. 
2.	How do rocks help us understand the past and future?  
CA Next Generation Science Standards 

4-ESS1-1: Identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time. 

4-ESS2-1: Make observations and/or measurements to provide evidence of the effects of weathering or the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, or vegetation. 

4-ESS1.C: The History of Planet Earth: Local, regional, and global patterns of rock formations reveal change over time due to Earth’s forces, such as earthquakes. The presence and location of certain fossil types indicate the order in which rocks layers were formed. 

4-ESS2.B: Plate Tectonics and Large-Scale Systems Interactions: The location of mountain ranges, deep ocean trenches, ocean floor structures, earthquakes, and volcanoes occur in patterns. Most earthquakes and volcanoes occur in bands that are often along the boundaries between continents and oceans. Major mountain chains form inside continents or near their edges. Maps can help locate the different land and water features on Earth. 

Crosscutting Concept: Patterns can be used as evidence to support an explanation. 

Crosscutting Concept: Cause and effect relationships are routinely identified, tested, and used to explain change. (4-ESS2-1). 

History-Social Science Standards

4.1 Students demonstrate an understanding of the physical and human geographic features that define places and regions in California. 

3. Identify the state capital and describe the various regions of California, including how their characteristics and physical environments (e.g. water, landforms, vegetation, climate) affect human activity. 

4.2.1 Discuss the major nations of California Indians, including their geographic distribution. Economic activities, legends, and religious beliefs; and describe how they depended on, adapted to, and modified he physical environment by cultivation of land and use of sea resources. 

CA Common Core Standards 

Speaking and Listening 
1.4: Engage effectively in a range of collaboration discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 4 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.  

Writing  
4.2: Write informative/ explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.  

4.9: Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.  

Learning Plan  

Summary of Key Learning Events and Instruction 

1.	Teacher attends teacher workshop (if new to the program).  
2.	New teachers will pick up classroom kits at the teacher workshop. Returning teachers will have kits delivered by NPS staff. Kits contain the following materials: “Where Wonder Grows” by Xelena Gonzalez, one sounding box, Marie Tharp’s map, “Solving the Puzzle Under the Sea” by Robert Burleigh, journals, lesson plans, and rock samples.
  
Classroom Preparation 

1)	Before NPS pre-trip presentation: Teacher shows 10-minute RPS video to introduce trip purpose and overarching concepts. 
2)	Teacher leads students in three lesson plans: “Vocabulary Builder,” “What on Earth is Under My Feet,” and “Human vs Environmental Change.”  
3)	Students complete the pre-classroom visit portion of the student journals (all materials are in the kit).  
4)	NPS staff visits the classroom (duration 75 minutes) prior to the field visit or conducts a 1-hour virtual pre-visit. During the in-person classroom visit, NPS staff will: 

a)	Gather student questions from their journals.  
b)	Build on their prior knowledge to learn how the first detailed map of the world’s oceans was made.  
c)	Ask students to consider how this map changed the way we think about land and sea.  
d)	Guide students through a “sounding box” activity and use world maps to find earthquake and volcano patterns. (NPS will bring all materials) to help students find patterns of ocean floor structures.  
e)	See the rocks that form the ocean floor (underwater volcanic rocks).  
f)	Provide time to answer any burning questions about the presentation and field trip!  

Field Visit 

1)	Teacher brings classroom kit and materials to the Marin Headlands on the day of the field visit.  
2)	Students continue their exploration of the deep ocean at the Point Bonita lighthouse in the park. NPS staff facilitate a hike to the lighthouse and see evidence of underwater volcanoes and human activity.  

Classroom Assessment  

1)	NPS staff will provide teachers with a postage-paid envelope with student post-activity reflections to be completed by each student back at school, then mailed to us within 2 weeks. 
2)	These reflections help us improve the program and support with transportation scholarships for students to visit the Marin Headlands.  (: