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Rock for a Growing County

Grade 8 argument practice: county gravel records and quarry data show how population growth and rising resource use change land, water and habitats.

Grade 8ScienceInteractive · Printable

Aligned toMS-ESS3-4

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What’s included

Single worksheet
Auto-graded online
1 NGSS standard
Printable answer key
11 questions
Classroom-ready

Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 8
Subject: Science
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Circle the answer, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students analyze data to show how population and use per person together set total resource use.
Students argue from evidence how a growing quarry changes land, groundwater and streams.

How to use

Read the field trip passage aloud, then let pairs work through the county records before each student writes the final argument alone.

Curriculum

NGSS standard covered

MS-ESS3-4

Argue how growth in human population and resource use affects Earth's systems.

Preview

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Rock for a Growing County

Use quarry and county data to argue how growth changes the land and water.

Part 1: Gravel and people

Read the passage and the county records. Use them to answer questions 1–5.

Field Trip to Stony Ridge Quarry

1Callum Whitaker's eighth-grade earth science class spent a morning at Stony Ridge Quarry, the largest gravel and crushed-stone pit in Harlan County. From the viewing deck, the class could see gray limestone walls, layered like a cake, and trucks climbing a ramp out of the pit. A loader scooped broken rock into a crusher that roared as it broke the rock into pieces no bigger than a walnut. Before the tour, the class was allowed to search a pile of loose rock set aside for school groups, and several students found shells of ancient sea animals called brachiopods. They wore hard hats and stayed behind the fence the whole time.

2Their guide, Rosalind Achebe, works for the county as a resource planner. She explained that crushed stone, sand and gravel are the most-used solid resources in most counties. They are mixed into concrete and laid under roads, sidewalks, parking lots and the foundations of houses. Because rock is heavy and costly to haul far, most counties dig it close to where it will be used. The limestone here formed on an ancient sea floor over millions of years, so once it is dug out, it will not be replaced on any human time scale.

3Ms. Achebe shared county records. Harlan County has grown quickly as new families moved in, and new roads and neighborhoods were built for them. The county divides the gravel used each year by the population to find the use per person. She also showed data about the quarry itself. As the pit gets deeper, groundwater seeps into it, so pumps run day and night to push the water into nearby Turkey Creek. The county checks a test well 500 m from the pit to see how far down the groundwater is.

4Some of the rock the county needs no longer has to come out of the ground. Old concrete from torn-up roads and buildings can be crushed and used again under new roads. In 2020, about 10% of the county's road base was made this way. Ms. Achebe said the county is deciding how much more to recycle as it plans for 2040, when about 400,000 people are expected to live there.