HS-ESS1-6: Meteorites, moon rocks and Earth's early history
What students must show for performance expectation HS-ESS1-6, with a lesson sequence built on live data, the misconceptions to expect, and assessment questions with answers.
Last updated . Curriculum links last reviewed November 2026.
What students must show
Our summary- Students apply reasoning and evidence from ancient Earth materials, meteorites and other planetary surfaces to build an account of Earth's formation and early history.
Earth formed with the rest of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. Evidence includes the radioactive ages of meteorites and moon rocks, the sizes and makeup of solar-system objects, and crater records.
The official page sets no assessment boundary for this standard.
Our summary, in our own words. Read the official wording.
The three dimensions
High schoolConstructing explanations
Link several independent kinds of evidence to a claim.
ESS1.C and PS1.C
Earth's oldest rocks are mostly gone, but moon rocks, asteroids and meteorites have changed little; radioactive decay rates let us date them.
Stability and change
Science explains how things change and how they stay the same.
Live tools for this standard
3 toolsLesson sequence
Engage to evaluate- Engage10 min
Spin the Moon globe and count the craters in one area. Then ask: where are Earth's craters?
- Explore25 min
Crater counting: compare the Moon's dark plains (the maria) with its bright highlands. Fewer craters means a younger surface. Order three regions by age.
- Explain20 min
Dating: radioactive decay. Meteorites give ages near 4.57 billion years and the oldest moon rocks about 4.46 billion years. Earth's oldest known mineral grains are about 4.4 billion years old.
- Elaborate15 min
Near-Earth objects: asteroids are leftovers from the disk the planets formed from. Why does an impact record survive on the Moon but not on Earth?
- Evaluate15 min
Students write the story of early Earth using at least three independent kinds of evidence.
Common misconceptions
3 to watch forEarth's oldest rocks tell us Earth's age directly.
Moving plates, erosion and melting have recycled almost all of Earth's first rocks, so meteorites and moon rocks give the best age.
Compare the oldest Earth mineral with the oldest meteorite.
The Moon's craters are old volcanoes.
Almost all of them are impact craters.
Drop marbles into a tray of flour dusted with cocoa and compare the shapes.
Radioactive dating is just a guess.
Decay rates are measured precisely, stay constant, and different methods agree.
Work through one half-life calculation together.
Assessment questions
Answers folded awayHS-ESS1-6: Meteorites, moon rocks and Earth's early history · orbitalradar.com/schools/us/standards/hs-ess1-6
- Why do meteorites help date Earth?
- They formed with the solar system and have changed little
- They broke off Earth's crust
- They are younger than Earth
- A region of the Moon with fewer craters is probably:
- Older
- Younger
- The same age
- Why does Earth have so few visible craters?
- A rock has half of its original radioactive parent atoms left. The half-life is 1.3 billion years. How old is the rock?
- Claim, evidence, reasoning: was the Moon hit more often long ago than today?
Answer key
- They formed with the solar system and have changed little.
- Younger.
- Weather, water, erosion and moving plates have erased or hidden most of them.
- About 1.3 billion years.
- Yes: the oldest surfaces are covered in overlapping craters, and younger plains have few.
Worksheet
US LetterNo live-data worksheet for this standard yet: print the assessment questions above. All sheets: the worksheet library.
The same idea in state standards
Texas, Florida, Georgia- Florida: SC.912.E.5.5
- Georgia: SES1.a, SAST3.a
No close Texas match in the TEKS we cover.
Related, not equivalent: each state words and groups its standards differently.
More standards pages
High schoolAbout these codes
These are our suggestions for where each tool fits. Always preview a page before using it with a class: some tools show ads, these school pages do not.
Codes are performance expectations of the Next Generation Science Standards*, for example 5-ESS1-2. Each summary is our own wording; follow the link on a standard page for the official text.
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Cite this page
Pick a style, then copy it or download it for your reference manager.Orbital Radar. (2026, November 6). HS-ESS1-6: Meteorites, moon rocks and Earth's early history. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://orbitalradar.com/schools/us/standards/hs-ess1-6
“HS-ESS1-6: Meteorites, moon rocks and Earth's early history.” Orbital Radar, 6 Nov. 2026, orbitalradar.com/schools/us/standards/hs-ess1-6. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.
Orbital Radar (2026) HS-ESS1-6: Meteorites, moon rocks and Earth's early history. Available at: https://orbitalradar.com/schools/us/standards/hs-ess1-6 (Accessed: 6 November 2026).
Orbital Radar. “HS-ESS1-6: Meteorites, moon rocks and Earth's early history.” Last modified November 6, 2026. https://orbitalradar.com/schools/us/standards/hs-ess1-6.
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* Next Generation Science Standards is a registered trademark of WestEd. Neither WestEd nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.