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6th grade · Science · Unit 15 of 17

Earth's Spheres & Layers

The biosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and geosphere, and Earth's layers.

What your child practices

Practices the four Earth systems (biosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and geosphere) and their parts, and the layers of Earth: crust, mantle, outer core and inner core.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 6.10(A); 6.10(B) · Earth's four spheres, and the layers of Earth

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. The spheres: atmosphere (gases), hydrosphere (water), biosphere (life) and geosphere (rock, soil and Earth's interior).
  2. Earth's layers: crust, mantle, liquid outer core and solid inner core.
  3. Temperature increases as you go deeper inside Earth.
  4. Spheres interact, like roots (biosphere) breaking rock (geosphere).

Example: Which layer of Earth is liquid metal? The inner core is solid. The layer around it is liquid. Answer: the outer core

Earth's Spheres & Layers in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 15 of 17 in 6th grade Science, after Energy Transfers & Waves and before Kinds of Organisms.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Order Earth's layers from the surface inward.

    • Crust, outer core, mantle, inner core
    • Mantle, crust, inner core, outer core
    • Crust, mantle, outer core, inner core
    • Inner core, outer core, crust, mantle

  2. Question 2

    Rain falls on a field. Which two spheres interact?

    • Atmosphere and geosphere
    • Biosphere only
    • Biosphere and inner core
    • Mantle and crust

  3. Question 3

    A glacier is part of the…

    • geosphere only
    • hydrosphere
    • atmosphere
    • biosphere

  4. Question 4

    The thickest layer of Earth is the…

    • mantle
    • inner core
    • atmosphere
    • crust

  5. Question 5

    Clouds of water droplets are part of the hydrosphere and the…

    • geosphere
    • mantle
    • inner core
    • atmosphere

  6. Question 6

    A fish swimming in a lake shows the biosphere interacting with the…

    • hydrosphere
    • inner core
    • geosphere
    • mantle

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