Content Resource Review

By Stephen Baxley
For my content resource review, I chose to use www.Khanacademy.org. I chose Khan
academy because it is already a resource that I use regularly with my students for mathematics
and English language arts/reading practice and instruction. I like to use Khan academy for a
couple of reasons. One is due to familiarity, I remember in college and in highschool I would
often use Khan academy to help me with assignments, the videos always did a great job of
comprehensively explaining the content. Second the website is very well organized and uses
student friendly language as well as providing challenging material to build students’ knowledge.
One downside to khan academy is the lack of science resources for the elementary grades.
I chose to complete Unit 4 of Middle school Earth and space science on “The Geosphere”
though it is a middle school unit the content is very applicable to the 5th grade standard addressed
in my semester long project. The unit is broken up into four different lessons: The rock cycle,
Fossils and rock layers, Plate tectonics, and Weathering and erosion.
The first lesson was all about the rock cycle, in this lesson they review the cyclical nature
of how rock are formed broken down and then formed all over again. The lesson breaks down
the three main types of rocks: Igneous rocks, sedimentary rocks, and metamorphic rocks. One
thing that really stuck with me from this lesson is the cyclical nature of the rock cycle. It is often
very hard for students to see the amount of time that these processes take and how they are never
ending, when one step ends the next starts and it is constantly happening and changing.
The second lesson focuses on Fossils and rock layers. It really breaks down the
geological time scale and the whole idea of geological dating. Much like the first lesson, the
second lesson doesn’t have a direct relation to the content and standards taught in 5th grade.
However, this lesson focuses on looking at fossils within the rock layers to determine the age of
certain layers of the earth as well as discoveries in these layers. This is crucial in helping students
to understand the age of the earth and the time it takes for these changes to the earths surface to
me made.
The third lesson is all about plate tectonics. It starts with a review of the different layers
of the earth (i.e. The lithosphere) and their role in the shifting of tectonic plates. It goes onto give
an overview of the concept of Pangea. The lesson then discussed the three different types of plate
tectonic movement (Convergent or coming together, Divergent or moving apart, and transform
or slide against). Once introducing these three different types of plate movement the chapter
explains the different results of these three different types of plate movement.
The final lesson is arguably the most important and relevant to 5th grade standards around
this concept. The fourth lesson discusses the different types of weathering and erosion as well as
their impact on the earth surface. The three types of weather that are discussed are mechanical
weathering (i.e., water and gravity), Chemical weathering (i.e., acid rain), and Coastal erosion
(i.e., waves crashing against a beach). The lesson then provides example of where erosion and
deposition can be seen in nature. The specific example they provide are Oxbow lakes which are a
natural occurring landforms that are made by mechanical weathering and deposition primarily
due to differencing level of volume and flow speed of water in rivers.
I see this resource as being very usable in my own classroom, in particular the final
lesson on weathering and erosion. I see this lesson as being the most usable due to its direct
relation to the content we teach in my classroom. That being said, the other three lesson provide
great background information that I think would improve students comprehension of grade level
standards and expectations.

Resources
The geosphere | Middle school Earth and space science - NGSS. (n.d.). Khan Academy.

Retrieved October 29, 2022, from https://www.khanacademy.org/science/middle-school-

earth-and-space-science/x87d03b443efbea0a:the-geosphere