Earth and Space Science · California Grade 7

MS-ESS2-1

Develop a model to describe the cycling of Earth’s materials and the flow of energy that drives this process.

Clarification statement: Emphasis is on the processes of melting, crystallization, weathering, deformation, and sedimentation, which act together to form minerals and rocks through the cycling of Earth’s materials.

Assessment boundary: Assessment does not include the identification and naming of minerals.

Source: California Department of Education, NGSS Preferred Integrated Course Model, Grade 7 (accessed 2026-10-18)

Chapters

Chapter 10: Energy in Earth's Systemsassesses

Students develop and revise models (a convection-cell diagram, a tank model in Lab 1, a string-and-card systems model in Lab 2) that describe how energy flowing from the interior and from the Sun drives the cycling of rock, water and air. The clarification statement's named processes (melting, crystallization, weathering, deformation, sedimentation) are developed in Lesson 17, so this chapter supplies evidence for the energy-flow part of the PE and sets up the materials-cycling part.

Chapter 11: Scales of Change on Earth's Surfacesupports

Weathering, deposition, compaction and cementation, and crystal growth from a cooling solution all appear here as surface processes with rates. Lesson 17 assembles them into the full rock cycle model; this chapter supplies the pieces and the sense of how long each takes.

Chapter 17: The Rock Cycleassesses

The lesson's core is the rock cycle model. Lab 3, W4 and the slide-23 task require students to build or complete a model with melting, crystallization, weathering, deformation and sedimentation and to label the energy source for each arrow, which is direct evidence toward this PE. Nothing asks students to identify or name minerals, so the assessment boundary is respected.

Chapter 19: Earth's Natural Resourcessupports

The four ways ore forms (crystals settling in magma, hydrothermal veins, sedimentary layering and deep weathering) are rock-cycle processes from the Grade 7 rock cycle lesson. The chapter uses them as the mechanism behind resource distribution; it does not ask students to name minerals.

Worksheets (19)

Chapter	Worksheet	Role	How it connects
Ch. 10	W1 · The Jar That Stirs Itself: Warm Water Up, Cold Water Down Phenomenon exploration	practice	Students meet the mechanism (heating lowers density, gravity sinks the denser fluid) that drives convection in the mantle, the energy flow this PE asks them to model. The rock-cycle processes named in the clarification statement come in a later lesson, so this sheet builds toward the PE rather than assessing it.
Ch. 10	W2 · Four Spheres, Three Ways to Move Energy: Sorting the Terms Vocabulary in action	practice	The terms sorted here (conduction, convection, density, the layers of the geosphere) are the labels students will put on their model of energy flow in the mantle. The sheet builds the vocabulary for the model without producing the model itself.
Ch. 10	W3 · Two Furnaces, One Surface: Where Earth's Energy Comes From Reading with evidence	practice	The passage traces the energy from Earth's interior that drives mantle convection and compares it with solar energy. Students gather the evidence they will need to label the energy flow in their models; the sheet builds toward the PE without producing a model.
Ch. 10	W4 · Reading the Loop: A Model of Convection in the Mantle Diagrams and models	assesses	The drawing task produces a labeled model of energy flowing from Earth's interior and of mantle rock cycling by convection, which is direct evidence toward this PE. The rock-cycle processes in the clarification statement (melting, crystallization, weathering, sedimentation) belong to a later lesson and are not assessed here.
Ch. 10	W5 · How Fast Does a Plume Rise? Convection Speed and Earth's Layers Data and graphing	practice	Students quantify the link between a temperature difference and the speed of convection, then scale that idea to the mantle. This gives their energy-flow model a quantitative basis without producing the model itself.
Ch. 10	W7 · Heat Does Not Float: Fixing Mateo's Quiz Error analysis	practice	Diagnosing 'heat rises,' 'the mantle is liquid' and 'gravity pushes warm water up' forces students to state the real mechanism of energy flow and matter cycling in the mantle, which strengthens the model they build for this PE.
Ch. 10	W8 · Follow the Energy: A Twelve-Card Jigsaw Across Earth's Systems Collaborative investigation	practice	Four of the cards trace energy from Earth's interior through conduction and convection to moving rock and magma; sorting and defending them builds the energy-flow side of the model this PE asks for.
Ch. 10	W10 · Energy in Earth's Systems: Mastery Check Retrieval and mastery check	assesses	Items 4, 7, 11 and 13 ask students to explain and draw the energy flow that drives convection of mantle rock, which is evidence toward the model this PE requires. The rock-cycle processes in the clarification statement are not assessed here; they belong to a later lesson.
Ch. 11	W2 · Break, Carry, Drop, Lift: Putting the Scale Words to Work Vocabulary in action	supports	Weathering, erosion, deposition and the burial of sand into sandstone are steps in the cycling of Earth's materials; the final paragraph item traces one grain through those steps as background for the rock-cycle model.
Ch. 17	W1 · The Dome, the Cobbles and the Sand Bar: Where Is the Rock Going? Phenomenon exploration	supports	Students meet the phenomenon that will anchor their rock-cycle model: solid rock turning into sediment, moving downhill and piling up in layers. This sheet surfaces prior ideas and questions; it does not yet produce the model the PE calls for.
Ch. 17	W2 · Rock Words That Work Together: Sorting, Mapping and Choosing Terms Vocabulary in action	practice	Placing the names of processes (weathering, deposition, crystallization, deformation, melting) on the arrows of a cycle and tying each to its energy source builds the vocabulary students need to label the model this PE asks for. It is practice, not yet the student's own model.
Ch. 17	W3 · Three Lives of a Quartz Grain: Reading a Rock's History Reading with evidence	practice	The passage follows one grain through melting, crystallization, weathering, sedimentation and deformation, the exact processes the PE's clarification names, and asks students to tie each to its energy source. It builds the ideas for the model without yet asking students to construct one.
Ch. 17	W4 · Reading a Cliff, Then Drawing the Cycle: A Model with Energy Arrows Diagrams and models	assesses	Part B asks students to develop a model of the cycling of Earth's materials that labels melting, crystallization, weathering, deformation and sedimentation and marks the energy source of each arrow. That is the PE as written, so the drawing and its labels are evidence toward it. No mineral naming is required.
Ch. 17	W5 · Crystal Size Versus Cooling Time, and What a Dice Game Says About Rock Data and graphing	practice	Part A quantifies crystallization, one of the processes the PE names, so students can reason about intrusive versus extrusive rock from numbers. Part B asks students to evaluate a physical model of the cycle, which builds the modeling practice the PE requires without being the student's own model.
Ch. 17	W6 · Did the Rock at Kettle Ridge Melt? A Claim-Evidence-Reasoning Case Claim, evidence, reasoning	practice	Students distinguish deformation and recrystallization from melting and crystallization, the processes the PE names, and tie the change to heat from Earth's interior. Arguing from evidence about one route of the cycle builds toward the model without producing the whole model.
Ch. 17	W7 · Fix Mateo's Rock Cycle: Finding and Repairing Six Errors Error analysis	practice	Repairing a flawed description and diagram of the cycle (fixed order, melting as metamorphism, the Sun melting rock, sand hardening by drying) targets the exact ideas a correct model must get right. Students critique a model rather than build their own, so this is practice toward the PE.
Ch. 17	W8 · Rock Detectives at Red Mesa: An Evidence Jigsaw Collaborative investigation	practice	Building a site history from evidence requires students to recognize melting, crystallization, weathering, deformation and sedimentation from their traces and to tie each to the Sun or Earth's interior. The group's timeline is a model of the cycle at one place, built toward the PE.
Ch. 17	W9 · Choose the Stone: Which Rock Will Last on the Riverside Steps? Transfer and design	practice	Predicting which stone will resist frost and acid rain requires applying how each rock formed (interlocking crystals versus cemented grains, calcite versus silica) and how weathering, a Sun-driven process in the cycle, will attack it. The task applies the model rather than building it.
Ch. 17	W10 · Rock Cycle Check: Retrieval Practice and a Short Synthesis Retrieval and mastery check	assesses	Items span melting, crystallization, weathering, deformation and sedimentation and require students to name the energy flow behind each; the synthesis asks for two different routes through the cycle with energy sources. Together these produce evidence toward the PE without any mineral identification.

Labs (10)

Chapter	Lab	Role	How it connects
Ch. 10	Lab 1 · Heat or Dye? Building a Convection Cell in a Tank Physical model	practice	Students build and interpret a physical model of a convection cell, the mechanism that cycles mantle rock, ocean water and air. The lab builds the model-based reasoning the PE asks for; the geologic processes in the clarification statement come in Lesson 17.
Ch. 10	Lab 2 · Strings Across the Spheres: Modeling Energy and Matter Flows Collaborative systems modeling	assesses	Students develop a model of energy flow and material cycling among Earth's systems, tag every link with its energy source and mechanism, and use the model to predict what stops when a source is removed. This is direct evidence for the energy-flow part of the PE; the rock-forming processes in the clarification statement are modeled in Lesson 17.
Ch. 10	Lab 3 · Where Should Pine Ridge Drill? A Geothermal Data Decision Data-driven decision	practice	Students read real-looking evidence of energy leaving Earth's interior (rock getting hotter with depth) and distinguish conduction through solid rock from convection of groundwater. This builds the energy-flow half of the PE through data rather than a model.
Ch. 11	Lab 1 · The Crystal Clock: Measuring a Change Too Slow to Watch Physical model	supports	Crystals growing from a cooling, concentrated solution preview the crystallization step of the rock cycle in Lesson 17, and the fast-versus-slow cooling comparison matches why some igneous rocks have large crystals and others fine ones.
Ch. 11	Lab 2 · Case File: Pinecrest Valley. Which Processes Shaped It, and How Fast? Evidence-based mystery	supports	The tilted sandstone, the ash bed and the cave are pieces of the rock cycle that Lesson 17 assembles; here students only have to recognize them as deposited, hardened and uplifted material.
Ch. 11	Lab 3 · How Fast Is Our Campus Changing? A Field Survey of Rates Classroom field investigation	supports	Sediment traced from a crumbling surface to a pile at a downspout is the first two steps of the rock cycle seen in one afternoon; Lesson 17 completes the loop.
Ch. 17	Lab 1 · Crayon Rocks: Press It, Warm It, Melt It, Then Recycle It Physical model	practice	Students physically perform weathering, deposition and compaction, deformation without melting, and melting followed by crystallization, and record the energy source for each in the model and on Earth. The complete multi-route model with energy labels is assessed in Lab 3 and W4; here students build the pieces.
Ch. 17	Lab 2 · The Unlabeled Box: Twelve Samples, Three Sites, No Names Evidence-based mystery	practice	Students connect texture evidence to melting and crystallization, weathering and sedimentation, and deformation and recrystallization, and name the energy that drives each. This builds the process-to-evidence link the model needs; no mineral identification is required, which respects the assessment boundary.
Ch. 17	Lab 3 · Roll the Rock Cycle: Where Does Earth's Material Spend Its Time? Collaborative systems modeling	assesses	The recording sheet is itself a model: every logged transition names the process (melting, crystallization, weathering and erosion, deposition and burial, heat and pressure) and the energy that drives it, and the modified-rules run requires students to revise the model for a new setting and explain the change. This produces direct evidence for the PE; no minerals are identified.
Ch. 19	Lab 1 · The Calder Basin Treasure Mystery: Read the Clues, Place the Drills Evidence-based mystery	supports	Students use melting, crystallization, weathering and sedimentation to reason from a landscape to a hidden resource; they are never asked to identify or name minerals.