Science · Chemistry in the Earth System

SEL activities for California HMH Science Dimensions: Chemistry in the Earth System

30 RoseThread Connect activities matched to the chapters of California HMH Science Dimensions: Chemistry in the Earth System (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). Each one teaches the chapter's content and builds one Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) skill in about 20 minutes.

We look only at each book's table of contents (chapter titles and topics) to suggest activities that fit the flow of your course. We don't use or reproduce any textbook content, and your edition's chapter order may differ slightly. RoseThread Connect is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by these publishers.

Unit 1: Measuring Matter and Energy

• My Chemistry Story Self-awareness · Chemistry in the Earth SystemStudents list the chemistry they already see in kitchens, fields, and cars and name the strengths they bring as scientists.

Unit 2: Heat and Energy in the Earth System

• Heat on the Move Self-management · Chemistry in the Earth SystemInvestigating how heat flows toward equilibrium and practicing strategies to bring heated emotions back to balance.
• Inside Earth's Engine Self-awareness · Chemistry in the Earth SystemModeling convection in Earth's mantle and noticing what drives students' own inner motion.
• Hot Springs of the Desert Social awareness · Chemistry in the Earth SystemExplaining the geothermal heating of local hot springs and learning how the Agua Caliente people have valued them for generations.
• Energy Budgets Responsible decision-making · Chemistry in the Earth SystemCalculating Earth's energy budget and balancing a personal energy budget of sleep, school, and work.
• Water Holds Heat Relationship skills · Chemistry in the Earth SystemInvestigating water's high heat capacity and communicating results clearly to a partner group.
• Thermal Energy and Choices Responsible decision-making · Chemistry in the Earth SystemDesigning a device that keeps a lunch cool and justifying design choices honestly, including weaknesses.

Unit 3: Patterns in the Properties of Matter

• The Periodic Table as a Map Self-awareness · Chemistry in the Earth SystemUsing the periodic table to predict properties and mapping personal patterns that predict good and hard days.
• Salt in the Sea Social awareness · Chemistry in the Earth SystemExplaining why ionic salts concentrate as water evaporates from the Salton Sea and considering how nearby residents experience the change.
• Nuclear Changes Responsible decision-making · Chemistry in the Earth SystemModeling fission, fusion, and decay and discussing how fear and facts both enter energy decisions.

Unit 4: Chemical Attractions

• Fire and Fuel Self-management · Chemistry in the Earth SystemBalancing combustion equations to show conservation of mass and breaking a hard goal into balanced small steps.
• Attractions Between Particles Social awareness · Chemistry in the Earth SystemInvestigating how intermolecular forces explain boiling points and how small signals shape relationships.
• Salt in the Sea Social awareness · Chemistry in the Earth SystemExplaining why ionic salts concentrate as water evaporates from the Salton Sea and considering how nearby residents experience the change.
• Structure Shapes Function Self-management · Chemistry in the Earth SystemCommunicating why molecular structure matters for designed materials and connecting personal structure, like routines, to how well we function.
• Reactions All Around Us Social awareness · Chemistry in the Earth SystemExplaining reaction patterns in everyday life and noticing how our own reactions affect others.
• Conservation of Mass Self-management · Chemistry in the Earth SystemUsing mole ratios to show mass is conserved and tracking how effort adds up even when results are not yet visible.

Unit 5: Reaction Energy

• Fire and Fuel Self-management · Chemistry in the Earth SystemBalancing combustion equations to show conservation of mass and breaking a hard goal into balanced small steps.
• Energy in Bonds Self-awareness · Chemistry in the Earth SystemModeling the energy released and absorbed when bonds form and break, and noticing what drains or fuels students' own energy.
• Comparing Fuels Responsible decision-making · Chemistry in the Earth SystemCalculating the energy per gallon of different fuels and weighing tradeoffs in a decision without rushing.
• Lab Partners Who Listen Relationship skills · Chemistry in the Earth SystemTeams plan a reaction rate investigation and practice listening fully before deciding.
• Rates of Reaction Responsible decision-making · Chemistry in the Earth SystemArguing how temperature and concentration change reaction rates and noticing what speeds up or slows down our own reactions.

Unit 6: Human Activity and Earth's Atmosphere

• Clean Air Questions Social awareness · Chemistry in the Earth SystemEvaluating information about combustion pollution and considering how air quality affects families differently across the valley.
• Greenhouse Gases Self-awareness · Chemistry in the Earth SystemModeling how greenhouse gases trap energy and naming the feelings that climate news brings up.
• Reading the Climate Record Responsible decision-making · Chemistry in the Earth SystemAnalyzing temperature and carbon dioxide data and separating trends from noise without letting worry distort the evidence.
• Climate Worry and Action Self-management · Chemistry in the Earth SystemUsing a computational model of human emissions and Earth systems and turning climate worry into small hopeful actions.
• Listening Across Viewpoints Social awareness · Chemistry in the Earth SystemArguing about climate solutions while restating others' viewpoints before responding.
• Carbon Capture Design Relationship skills · Chemistry in the Earth SystemEvaluating carbon capture solutions and their tradeoffs while building on each other's ideas in a design team.

Unit 7: Chemical Equilibrium Systems

• Equilibrium and Balance Self-management · Chemistry in the Earth SystemRefining a design that shifts a reaction's equilibrium and practicing ways to restore emotional balance after stress.
• Chemistry on the Farm Responsible decision-making · Chemistry in the Earth SystemEvaluating solutions that reduce fertilizer and pesticide runoff and weighing the needs of farmworkers, growers, and neighbors.
• Oceans Absorb Carbon Self-awareness · Chemistry in the Earth SystemModeling carbon cycling between air and ocean and noticing what we absorb from the people and media around us.
• Acids, Bases, and Balance Self-management · Chemistry in the Earth SystemInvestigating how buffers resist pH change and identifying the personal buffers that steady us.
• Engineering Clean Water Relationship skills · Chemistry in the Earth SystemBreaking a water treatment problem into smaller parts as a team and repairing trust when ideas clash.

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.