Systems
Chemistry
Engineering & Design
Natural Resources
Random
Rocks & Minerals
Plate Tectonics
California Geology
100
This type of system is made by mother nature
Natural System
100
The table that shows all of the elements is called the
Periodic Table of the Elements
100
Why do humans develop technology?
To solve problems
100
Any natural material or energy source that is used by humans is called a
Natural Resource
100
Who performed at the Super Bowl Halftime Show in February 2026?
Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny
100
What type of rocks are formed by the compaction of sediments?
Sedimentary Rock
100
What type of Plate Boundary occurs where two tectonic plates are smashing into each other?
Convergent Plate Boundary
100
Located just a few hours south of the San Francisco Bay Area in central California, Pinnacles National Park is an absolutely stunning place, dominated by intriguing rock formations called “The Pinnacles”.
One of the most interesting locations within the park is Bear Gulch Caves, an intriguing cave system that one can hike through. Bear Gulch Caves are a specific type of cave known as a Talus Cave, which is formed by boulders crashing down into a narrow canyon and piling up before they hit the ground, leaving space between the bottoms of the toppled boulders and the ground beneath them (hence the cave). What type of energy do the gigantic boulders have before they fall from the canyon walls?
Potential Energy
200
This type of system is made by people
Engineered System
200
The smallest building block of the universe, elements are made of these
Atoms
200
What is the first step in the engineering design process?
Identify a need
200
This type of natural resource takes longer to form/replenish than it is used
Nonrenewable resource
200
What is Nevada's nickname?
The Silver State
200
What type of rocks are formed by the cooling of lava or magma?
Igneous Rocks
200
What are the two types of crust called?
Continental & Oceanic Crust
200
What is the name of this major fault that last ruptured in 1868, runs through the East Bay, and endangers the lives of roughly 2 million people throughout Oakland, Berkeley, San Jose, Hayward, Fremont, and other communities? (Hint: Think of our last reading)
The Hayward Fault
300
This is the study of natural phenomena
Science
300
The Atomic Number of an element is shown _________ the abbreviation of the element on the periodic table
Above
300
What do you need to extract to make an engineered system?
Natural Resources
300
This type of natural resource forms/replenishes at roughly the same rate that it is used
Renewable Resource
300
Name one national park in California.
Death Valley, Joshua Tree, Yosemite, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Pinnacles, Lassen Volcanic, Redwoods, Channel Islands
300
What type of rock is formed by the heating and pressurizing of pre-existing rocks?
Metamorphic Rocks
300
Located just a few hours north of Los Angeles, Carrizo Plain National Monument is a gorgeous and tranquil locality, home to wildflowers, great views, and perhaps some of the best visual evidence available of active plate tectonics.
The monument is home to the mighty San Andreas Fault, a major plate boundary that occurs as two tectonic plates, the Pacific & North American Plates, slide past each other. What type of Plate Boundary is the San Andreas Fault?
Transform Plate Boundary
300
Mount Diablo, pictured here, is an iconic mountain that rises 3,849' in the Diablo Range just east of Walnut Creek, California. Mount Diablo is famous for a number of reasons, but one of its claims to fame is that it was the site of a productive Mercury Mine that dates back to the 1800s and early 1900s. Mercury is a metal that is mined from the Earth, and although its not used much anymore, it was critical to the California Gold Rush.
Mercury is not replenished as fast as it is used. What type of natural resource is Mercury?
Non Renewable Resource
400
This is something that is designed by people to solve problems
Technology
400
In a chemical reaction, the substances that are produced from a reaction are called the _________?
Product(s)
400
How can chemistry be used in engineering?
Making medicine, using metals to make electronic devices, using electricity, etc (I will accept any answer that makes sense and that can be backed up with examples)
400
This classification of resource can be an object, but it doesn't have to be, and it's used by humans for energy
Energy Resource
400
What was discovered at Sutter's Mill near the town of Coloma on the South Fork American River in 1849, kicking off one of California's most important economic periods of growth?
Gold
400
What type of igneous rock is formed by the cooling of lava that has erupted out of a volcano?
Extrusive/Volcanic Igneous Rock
400
What type of convergent plate boundary would you expect to form an Island Arc, such as Japan, in?
Oceanic-Oceanic Convergent Plate Boundary
400
Located just a few hours south of the San Francisco Bay Area in central California, Pinnacles National Park is an absolutely stunning place, dominated by intriguing rock formations called “The Pinnacles”.
The park is located in a mountain range called the Gabilan Range, and geologists have concluded that the rocks that make up the range have moved roughly 200 miles from their original location, sliced in half by a major fault line that runs roughly 800 miles through California. What is this major fault line called?
The San Andreas Fault
500
The screen is a _________ of the engineered system known as a cell phone
Component
500
In a chemical reaction, the substances that are being reacted are called the ____________ ?
Reactants
500
What do you do after you conduct research in the engineering design process?
Brainstorm solutions
500
This gargantuan hole in the ground is known as the Bingham Canyon Mine, and it is located in the Oquirrh Mountains just outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the deepest open pit mine in the world, with a maximum depth of almost 4,000'. Here, many metals have been extracted from the earth since the mine was first discovered in 1863, including Copper, Zinc, Lead, Silver, Gold, Molybdenum, Tellurium, and others. What type of resources are these metals that are extracted from the mine?
Nonrenewable Resources
500
Growing up in Hawaii, Peter Gene Hernandez was always an artsy soul, eventually becoming a pop singer that's famous for talking to the moon, wanting to marry someone on a whim, and finding treasure. What is this pop singer's stage name?
Bruno Mars
500
Located just a few hours south of the San Francisco Bay Area in central California, Pinnacles National Park is an absolutely stunning place, dominated by intriguing rock formations called “The Pinnacles”.
These rock formations are composed of rhyolite, a rock that is formed by lava erupting out of a volcano and cooling quickly at the surface of the earth. What type of igneous rock are the Pinnacles made out of?
Extrusive/Volcanic Igneous Rock
500
What type of landform is formed when an Oceanic Plate and a Continental Plate are converging into each other?
Continental Volcanic Arc
500
Located just a few hours south of the San Francisco Bay Area in central California, Pinnacles National Park is an absolutely stunning place, dominated by intriguing rock formations called “The Pinnacles”.
These rock formations are composed of rhyolite, a rock that is formed by lava erupting out of a volcano and cooling quickly at the surface of the earth. The specific rock unit that forms the Pinnacles is known as the Pinnacles Volcanic Formation, and it is almost identical in age and composition to the Neenach Volcanic Field, a group of rocks located 200 miles southeast of Pinnacles on the opposite side of the San Andreas Fault. The match between the Pinnacles Volcanic Formation and the Neenach Volcanic Field on opposite sides of the San Andreas Fault was one of several lines of evidence that convinced many skeptics of this revolutionary theory in Earth Science that suggests that the Earth’s crust is composed of several gigantic slabs of rock that move around and interact with each other. What is this theory called?
Plate Tectonics
600
Clear Lake is a lake located north of San Francisco, California. The lake is polluted by toxic metals, mainly Mercury. Mercury enters the lake through seeps, springs, and from an abandoned Mercury Mine at the shore of the lake called the Sulphur Bank Mine. The Mercury that seeps into the lake is a _____________ of the natural system known as Clear Lake.
Input
600
2 or more elements that are chemically bonded together form a ____________ ?
Compound
600
How can physics be used in engineering?
Suspension bridges, earthquake-proof structures, machines, etc (I will accept any answer that makes sense and can be backed up with an example)
600
These solar panels, located in the Eldorado Valley just south of Boulder City, Nevada, capture solar energy to power your home, this school, and other places in southern Nevada. What type and classification of resource is solar energy?
Renewable Resource, Energy Resource
600
What country is the island of Crete located in?
Greece
600
Deep within the majestic Sierra Nevada Mountains of eastern California, a place of wonder, beauty, and pure magic lies- Yosemite National Park. Established in 1890, Yosemite is the United States’s 3rd national park, protecting an area of 1,200 square miles. The park boasts iconic waterfalls, rock formations, ecosystems, and landforms.
The main type of rock that can be found in the park is Granodiorite, a rock that is formed as magma cools slowly underground. What type of igneous rock is the granodiorite that forms Yosemite’s dramatic landscapes?
Intrusive/Plutonic Igneous Rock
600
Name 3 differences between Continental and Oceanic Crust.
Continental: lighter, not as dense, rises, made of granite, rich in silicon
Oceanic: heavier, denser, sinks, made of basalt, rich in iron
600
Located just a few hours north of Los Angeles, Carrizo Plain National Monument is a gorgeous and tranquil locality, home to wildflowers, great views, and perhaps some of the best visual evidence available of active plate tectonics.
One such location where you can see striking evidence of active plate tectonics at Carrizo Plain is Elkhorn Scarp. Elkhorn Scarp is a massive linear fault scarp generated by the San Andreas Fault that provides some of the best visual evidence of the fault there is. Elkhorn Scarp was formed as the San Andreas Fault dragged massive chunks of earth past each other, and is the location where two massive tectonic plates slide past each other. What are the names of the two tectonic plates that slide past each other at the San Andreas Fault?
Pacific & North American Plates
700
Located just a few hours north of Los Angeles, Carrizo Plain National Monument is a gorgeous and tranquil locality, home to wildflowers, great views, and perhaps some of the best visual evidence available of active plate tectonics.
The last time a major earthquake struck the area was in 1857, when the massive Fort Tejon Earthquake occurred, registering a whopping 7.9 on the Moment Magnitude Scale. This earthquake instantaneously moved the fault line by 30 feet, and was a large line of evidence that assisted scientists in understanding that California is underlain by active faults that pose serious seismic threat to those living in the state. If an earthquake of similar size were to occur on the fault today, Los Angeles and other parts of southern California would be devastated- with tens of thousands of casualties and billions of dollars in damages. Because of this fact, engineers and scientists are working around the clock to re-design buildings, bridges, and other lines of infrastructure throughout California to be able to withstand large earthquakes. Is this an example of science influencing technology, or technology influencing science?
Science Influencing Technology
700
What is a sign that a chemical reaction has definitely occurred?
Odor, new substance created
700
What are criteria and constraints?
Criteria are a set of standards a design/solution must meet, constraints are the factors that limit/get in the way of a solution/design (time, money, resources, space, etc)
700
This is the Mountain Pass Mine, located roughly 50 miles southwest of Las Vegas in San Bernardino County, California. This mine is one of the only Rare Earth Element Mines outside of China, producing Rare Earth Elements such as Lanthanum, Cerium, Neodymium, Praseodymium, Gadolinium, and others. Rare Earth Elements are used in electronic devices, specifically as conductors of electricity, high-powered magnets that store data, and as processors in computers. What type and classification of resource are Rare Earth Elements?
Nonrenewable Resource, Physical Resource
700
How many US States have a coastline?
23
700
Name 2 types of environments where you would expect sandstone to form in.
Deserts, Beaches/Shallow Ocean
700
Located just a few hours north of Los Angeles, Carrizo Plain National Monument is a gorgeous and tranquil locality, home to wildflowers, great views, and perhaps some of the best visual evidence available of active plate tectonics.
One of the park’s most iconic features is Wallace Creek, a stream drainage that has been offset and dragged northwards by the San Andreas Fault. The directionality of this offset has been key to identifying the type of fault that the San Andreas is- as you look across the fault line, the land on the opposite side of the fault moves to your right hand side. What type of fault is the San Andreas Fault?
Right-Lateral Strike Slip Fault
700
Directly beneath the communities of Hollister, San Jose, Dublin, and several other towns and cities in the San Francisco Bay Area, an infamously creepy fault lies- the Calaveras Fault. The Calaveras Fault is “creepy” because it exhibits a phenomenon known as “Aseismic Creep”- which is basically movement of a fault without causing earthquakes. Striking evidence of this can be seen in the town of Hollister. The fault has moved and continues to move an entire street, sidewalk, and neighborhood- shifting the earth beneath the town to the right hand side.
Given that the fault moves the earth to the right hand side as you look across it, what type of fault is the Calaveras Fault?
Right-Lateral Strike Slip Fault
800
Directly beneath the communities of Hollister, San Jose, Dublin, and several other towns and cities in the San Francisco Bay Area, an infamously creepy fault lies- the Calaveras Fault. The Calaveras Fault is “creepy” because it exhibits a phenomenon known as “Aseismic Creep”- which is basically movement of a fault without causing earthquakes. Striking evidence of this can be seen in the town of Hollister. The fault has moved and continues to move an entire street, sidewalk, and neighborhood- shifting the earth beneath the town to the right hand side.
Despite its aseismic creep, the fault line is still capable of highly damaging earthquakes. The most recent major earthquake on the Calaveras Fault occurred In 1984, when a Magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck the town of Morgan Hill. Geologists estimate that there is an 11% chance that the Calaveras Fault will produce a damaging earthquake of Magnitude 6.7 or greater within the next 30 years. This figure is largely derived from InSAR technology that is used to monitor the fault, mathematical modeling, and past earthquake records that help scientists better understand the behavior of the Calaveras Fault. Is this an example of science influencing technology, or technology influencing science?
Technology Influencing Science
800
What happens to the atoms of reactants and products during a chemical reaction?
The atoms in the reactants are regrouped into different molecules to form the products
800
Explain how ONE technology mentioned in the Hayward Fault Reading assists scientists/engineers in better understanding earthquakes OR in designing safer buildings.
Seismograph, InSAR technology, seismic retrofitting
800
This is an oil well in the Baldwin Hills, located just west of Los Angeles, California, between downtown Los Angeles and Santa Monica. This drill is one of thousands that drills the rich oil sands of the numerous Oil Fields in the Los Angeles Basin. At one point in the 1920's, the Los Angeles Basin produced over 25% of the entire world's oil supply, producing over 9 billion barrels of oil. In fact, Los Angeles became the huge city that is today because of the oil industry... not because of Hollywood. Besides being used in cars, oil is actually essential to making plastic- so you can thank LA's oil for plastic.
A) What type and classification of natural resource is oil?
B) What are some disadvantages of using oil?
A) Nonrenewable Resource, Energy OR Physical Resource
B) It pollutes the environment, it takes much longer to form that it takes to use, etc. (I will accept other reasons that make sense and that are backed up with good reasons/explanations)
800
What's your group's favorite thing about science class?
No wrong answer :)
800
Name 3 examples of Metamorphic Rocks.
Gneiss, Schist, Marble, Quartzite, Slate, Phyllite, Serpentinite
800
Located just a few hours north of Los Angeles, Carrizo Plain National Monument is a gorgeous and tranquil locality, home to wildflowers, great views, and perhaps some of the best visual evidence available of active plate tectonics.
One of the park’s most iconic features is Wallace Creek, a stream drainage that has been offset and dragged roughly 420 feet by the San Andreas Fault. The entirety of this motion has occurred within the last 3,800 years. Given these figures, how fast does the San Andreas Fault move at Carrizo Plain? Provide your answer in feet per year.
0.11 feet per year
800
Directly beneath the communities of Hollister, San Jose, Dublin, and several other towns and cities in the San Francisco Bay Area, an infamously creepy fault lies- the Calaveras Fault. The Calaveras Fault is “creepy” because it exhibits a phenomenon known as “Aseismic Creep”- which is basically movement of a fault without causing earthquakes. Striking evidence of this can be seen in the town of Hollister. The fault has moved and continues to move an entire street, sidewalk, and neighborhood- shifting the earth beneath the town to the right hand side.
The Calaveras Fault is one of several minor faults that branch off of the greater San Andreas Fault in the San Francisco Bay Area. What are two other minor faults that branch off of the San Andreas in the region?
Hayward Fault, Greenville Fault, Green Valley Fault, Rodgers Creek Fault, Sargent Fault, San Joaquin Fault, Mayacama Fault, San Gregorio Fault