Texas TEKS 6.10

6.10 is a TEKS knowledge and skills statement. These are the student expectations under it.

• 6.10.A

  differentiate between the biosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and geosphere and identify components of each system

• 6.10.B

  model and describe the layers of Earth, including the inner core, outer core, mantle, and crust

• 6.10.C

  describe how metamorphic, igneous, and sedimentary rocks form and change through geologic processes in the rock cycle.

01

What Students Need to Do

Students sort objects and materials into the biosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, or geosphere. They label and describe Earth’s four main layers. They explain how rocks form and change through cooling, melting, weathering, erosion, deposition, compaction, cementation, heat, and pressure.

02

What Mastery Looks Like

Students correctly classify examples such as granite, river water, birds, and oxygen gas. They place the crust, mantle, outer core, and inner core in order and describe each. They trace more than one path through the rock cycle and name the processes involved.

03

Common Misconceptions

Students may think the four Earth systems never interact or that soil belongs only to the biosphere. They often reverse the inner and outer core or think the mantle is completely liquid. They may treat the rock cycle as one fixed sequence and confuse heat and pressure with melting.

04

How to Assess It

Give an exit ticket with four tasks: classify a bird, river, oxygen gas, and granite, label Earth’s layers, and complete two rock cycle arrows. Ask students to name the process shown by each arrow.

1. 01

   Build a layered clay Earth model, slice it open, label each layer, and compare the relative thicknesses.

2. 02

   Write how a rainstorm moves matter among the atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere, using one local example.

3. 03

   Play a rock cycle card game by matching rock types with process cards such as cooling, weathering, cementation, heat, and pressure.

4. 04

   Trace how a local flood affects air, water, land, living things, sediment movement, and future sedimentary rock formation.

• 3.10

  Earth and space. The student knows that there are recognizable processes that change Earth over time. The student is expected to:

• 4.10

  Earth and space. The student knows that there are processes on Earth that create patterns of change. The student is expected to:

• 7.9

  Earth and space. The student understands the patterns of movement, organization, and characteristics of components of our solar system. The student is expected ...

• 5.10

  Earth and space. The student knows that there are recognizable patterns and processes on Earth. The student is expected to: