Rock formations, water cycle, and the Earth's layers. All very important information, but after 1 or 4 years the details all turn into forgotten parts of middle school science. And some of the things taught explain so much about the Earth and your body. So a recap of some of the basics to remind you can be very helpful.

In rock formation, there are three types of rocks; igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. But how are the different types formed? Starting with igneous rocks, starting as lava or magma, over time they can cool and solidify. Next is sedimentary rocks; their entirety is other rocks and even pieces of dead organisms. When sediment is buried deep enough the pressure and heat cause the sediment to become compacted and confined creating sedimentary rocks. Last is metamorphic, metamorphic rocks start as other rocks. Like igneous and sedimentary. “The original rock (protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than 150 to 200 °C (300 to 400 °F) and, often, elevated pressure of 100 megapascals (1,000 bar) or more, causing profound physical or chemical changes.”¹

The rain you see goes on the same journey over and over again. What's the name of the journey? It is the water cycle. There are four major steps; the first is the evaporation of the water. Evaporation is when water in liquid form changes into water vapor in gas form. The next step is condensation, the reverse of evaporation. Then is precipitation, which is the rain you see going back down to the Earth's surface. Last is the collection of water on Earth from many different sources of water like ground, lake, ocean, and puddle water. This cycle repeats over and over again; the water on Earth has been the same for millions of years.

All living organisms are made up of cells (the basic unit of life), but just like us, they have insides with functions to keep them going. Cells have three main parts, cell membrane, nucleus, and cytoplasm. The cell membrane is almost like the skin. It wraps around the cell controlling what goes in and out of it. This way nothing that can hurt the cell will get in. Next is the nucleus. The nucleus is inside the cell, and it holds the nucleolus as well as most of the cell's DNA. It is also where the RNA is. All parts of the cell have very important purposes and help each other in the cell's journey.

From small to big, next is the solar system as well as the stars all around it. There are only eight planets in our solar system. They are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. That's from closets to the sun to the furthest. How many moons are there in the solar system? “One moon for Earth; two for Mars; 95 at Jupiter; 146 at Saturn; 28 at Uranus; 16 at Neptune; and five for the dwarf planet Pluto.”² Next are the stars; there are different types of stars. “Stars that are in their main sequence (normal stars) are categorized by their color. The smallest stars are red and don't give off much of a glow. Medium-sized stars are yellow, like the Sun. The largest stars are blue and are hugely bright. The larger the main sequence star, the hotter and brighter they are.”³ The smaller stars are dwarf stars. Being colors red, yellow, brown, and white. Brown stars are stars that never got big enough for nuclear fusion. When a giant star collapses it creates something called neutrons.

Going back down to Earth there is a man named Alfred Wegener, also known as the “father of tectonic plates.” Alfred noticed that the coastlines of Africa and South America seemed to fit together, just like a puzzle piece. This led him to theorize that the continents had once fit together, but over time they were ripped apart by floods and earthquakes. Sadly, Alfred's idea was ridiculed by other scientists; it took fifty years for his theory to be accepted. In modern days, tons of evidence supports his ideas. For example, fossils of the same animal have been found across oceans. This leads people to believe that they were alive during the time the continents were together. Another way people refer to this is Pangea, the supercontinent before all of the modern-day continents separated. But how do tectonic plates work? The plates are moved by currents in the mantle which causes them to create mountains, valleys, and many more geographic structures. There are also different types of tectonic plates. The first is divergent (divided) plates. These plates pull away from each other, in turn creating underwater mountain ranges, and oceanic spreading ridges. Next are the convergent plates, which are the opposite of divergent. As you can guess, sliding toward each other creates mountains and volcanoes. Last are the transform plates, sliding across each other like arrows going in different directions, making strange crust deformations. When tectonic plates shift they often make big to small Earthquakes, which then make tsunamis.

The Earth is filled with different animals, different habitats, and different ways of surviving. But how do different organisms survive over time? With something called evolution, over time different animals and plants have slowly adapted (changed) to survive and keep on living. This works with why animals reproduce. A real-life example is the peppered moth. At first, the white peppered moths could blend in with the environment, this caused there to be more white moths and more white moths to reproduce and have white moth babies. But once things like bad air pollution cause the wall and tree trunks to darken, the white moths stand out against it. The black pepper moth blended in better, causing there to be more black moths and they reproduced and had black moth babies. The animals more adapted to the environment they live in will better survive and carry on the genes that help them survive over time so that species can evolve into well-equipped organisms fit for their environment.

Many interesting science facts are forgotten over time. Many say that these facts hold no purpose for us and are useless. Even though they explain so much about yourself and others around you. So reading a bit about science can be very absorbing to you.