Science · Grade 10
Chemistry in the Earth System SEL activities
36 ready to use activities that teach Chemistry in the Earth System content and build one Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) skill, about 20 minutes each.
Self-awareness · 8 Self-management · 7 Social awareness · 7 Relationship skills · 6 Responsible decision-making · 8
Matched to textbook chapters: Experience Chemistry, Modern Chemistry, California HMH Science Dimensions: Chemistry in the Earth System.
Combustion and Energy
- My Chemistry Story Self-awareness · Week 1Students list the chemistry they already see in kitchens, fields, and cars and name the strengths they bring as scientists.
- Fire and Fuel Self-management · Week 2Balancing combustion equations to show conservation of mass and breaking a hard goal into balanced small steps.
- Energy in Bonds Self-awareness · Week 3Modeling the energy released and absorbed when bonds form and break, and noticing what drains or fuels students' own energy.
- Comparing Fuels Responsible decision-making · Week 4Calculating the energy per gallon of different fuels and weighing tradeoffs in a decision without rushing.
- Clean Air Questions Social awareness · Week 5Evaluating information about combustion pollution and considering how air quality affects families differently across the valley.
- Lab Partners Who Listen Relationship skills · Week 6Teams plan a reaction rate investigation and practice listening fully before deciding.
Heat and Energy in the Earth System
- Heat on the Move Self-management · Week 7Investigating how heat flows toward equilibrium and practicing strategies to bring heated emotions back to balance.
- Inside Earth's Engine Self-awareness · Week 8Modeling convection in Earth's mantle and noticing what drives students' own inner motion.
- Hot Springs of the Desert Social awareness · Week 9Explaining the geothermal heating of local hot springs and learning how the Agua Caliente people have valued them for generations.
- Energy Budgets Responsible decision-making · Week 10Calculating Earth's energy budget and balancing a personal energy budget of sleep, school, and work.
- Water Holds Heat Relationship skills · Week 11Investigating water's high heat capacity and communicating results clearly to a partner group.
- Thermal Energy and Choices Responsible decision-making · Week 12Designing a device that keeps a lunch cool and justifying design choices honestly, including weaknesses.
Atoms, Elements, and Molecules
- The Periodic Table as a Map Self-awareness · Week 13Using the periodic table to predict properties and mapping personal patterns that predict good and hard days.
- Attractions Between Particles Social awareness · Week 14Investigating how intermolecular forces explain boiling points and how small signals shape relationships.
- Salt in the Sea Social awareness · Week 15Explaining why ionic salts concentrate as water evaporates from the Salton Sea and considering how nearby residents experience the change.
- Structure Shapes Function Self-management · Week 16Communicating why molecular structure matters for designed materials and connecting personal structure, like routines, to how well we function.
- Nuclear Changes Responsible decision-making · Week 17Modeling fission, fusion, and decay and discussing how fear and facts both enter energy decisions.
- Semester Reflection: Elements of Me Self-awareness · Week 18Students build a personal element card showing their growth, bonds, and goals for the spring semester.
Chemical Reactions
- Reactions All Around Us Social awareness · Week 19Explaining reaction patterns in everyday life and noticing how our own reactions affect others.
- Conservation of Mass Self-management · Week 20Using mole ratios to show mass is conserved and tracking how effort adds up even when results are not yet visible.
- Rates of Reaction Responsible decision-making · Week 21Arguing how temperature and concentration change reaction rates and noticing what speeds up or slows down our own reactions.
- Equilibrium and Balance Self-management · Week 22Refining a design that shifts a reaction's equilibrium and practicing ways to restore emotional balance after stress.
- Chemistry on the Farm Responsible decision-making · Week 23Evaluating solutions that reduce fertilizer and pesticide runoff and weighing the needs of farmworkers, growers, and neighbors.
- Chemists Who Collaborate Relationship skills · Week 24Researching local chemistry careers in water treatment and agriculture and practicing collaborative information sharing.
Chemistry of Climate Change
- Greenhouse Gases Self-awareness · Week 25Modeling how greenhouse gases trap energy and naming the feelings that climate news brings up.
- Reading the Climate Record Responsible decision-making · Week 26Analyzing temperature and carbon dioxide data and separating trends from noise without letting worry distort the evidence.
- Climate Worry and Action Self-management · Week 27Using a computational model of human emissions and Earth systems and turning climate worry into small hopeful actions.
- Listening Across Viewpoints Social awareness · Week 28Arguing about climate solutions while restating others' viewpoints before responding.
- Carbon Capture Design Relationship skills · Week 29Evaluating carbon capture solutions and their tradeoffs while building on each other's ideas in a design team.
- Heat and Health Social awareness · Week 30Communicating how extreme heat affects health and planning ways to check on vulnerable neighbors.
Reaction Dynamics and Water Chemistry
- Oceans Absorb Carbon Self-awareness · Week 31Modeling carbon cycling between air and ocean and noticing what we absorb from the people and media around us.
- Acids, Bases, and Balance Self-management · Week 32Investigating how buffers resist pH change and identifying the personal buffers that steady us.
- Water Quality in Our Valley Responsible decision-making · Week 33Analyzing arsenic and nitrate data for local wells and drafting honest, respectful messages to community members.
- Engineering Clean Water Relationship skills · Week 34Breaking a water treatment problem into smaller parts as a team and repairing trust when ideas clash.
- Reflecting on Chemistry Self-awareness · Week 35Students revisit their chemistry story and explain how their understanding and confidence transformed like reactants into products.
- Gratitude Reaction Relationship skills · Week 36Students write thank you notes describing the catalyst a classmate or adult was for their learning this year.
RoseThread Connect activities are drafted with the help of AI and shaped by educators. Students never have to share anything personal. Our five SEL skills are informed by CASEL's SEL Framework; RoseThread Learning is not affiliated with or endorsed by CASEL.