Download Topic Earth`s crust Key Question How do natural forces shape the

Topic
Earth’s crust
Materials
For each pair of students:
one slice of white bread
one slice of whole wheat bread
one slice of dark rye bread
two tablespoons of jam or jelly
two tablespoons of crunchy peanut butter mixed
with raisins
two paper plates
jumbo craft stick or plastic knife
plastic cafeteria gloves, optional
Key Question
How do natural forces shape the rock layers of the
Earth’s crust?
Learning Goals
The students will:
1. make a model of rock layers in the Earth’s crust,
and
2. use the model to learn how natural forces shape
the rock layers.
Background Information
The surface of the Earth is undergoing change at
all times. Weathering defines the disintegration and
decomposition of the solid portions of the surface of
the Earth. Erosion is the process of the movement of
the Earth’s materials that have been weathered.
Erosion can be divided into two components,
transport and deposition. Transport is the movement
of the weathered materials. The movement of these
eroded materials is most often through water. Materials
are often moved from one place and deposited in
another location. The scientific term for this portion
of the erosion process is deposition.
This activity models the processes of weathering,
erosion, and deposition. Models are an important
part of the study of Earth science. They allow us
to learn about processes that are too slow or too
large to observe.
Guiding Documents
Project 2061 Benchmark
• Seeing how a model works after changes are made
to it may suggest how the real thing would work
if the same were done to it.
NRC Standards
• The surface of the earth changes. Some changes
are due to slow processes, such as erosion and
weathering, and some changes are due to rapid
processes, such as landslides, volcanic eruptions,
and earthquakes.
• Land forms are the result of a combination of
constructive and destructive forces. Constructive
forces include crustal deformation, volcanic eruption, and deposition of sediment, while destructive
forces include weathering and erosion.
• Lithospheric plates on the scales of continents and
oceans constantly move at rates of centimeters
per year in response to movements in the mantle.
Major geological events, such as earthquakes,
volcanic eruptions, and mountain building, result
from these plate motions.
Management
1. Make sure that the sandwiches remain right side
up while the students are making them (white
bread on the bottom).
2. Have students work in pairs and share a sandwich.
3. It saves time to have the ingredients measured out
onto paper plates before beginning this activity.
A pair of students will share one paper plate of
ingredients.
4. If students wear gloves, the sandwiches can be
eaten afterward.
Science
Earth science
geology
Integrated Processes
Observing
Comparing and contrasting
Applying
Core Curriculum/Oklahoma
Procedure
1. Distribute a paper plate with the described
ingredients.
2. Tell the students you will show them how to make
and manipulate a sandwich in the same way that
natural forces shape layers of rock.
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© 2006 AIMS Education Foundation
3. Use the accompanying narrative and pictures to
provide a guide for building the sandwich.
4. As the students build their sandwiches, keep
track of their progress by drawing a diagram on
the chalkboard or referring to pictures on the
activity sheet.
5. When all the sandwiches are finished, start a
question and answer period. (See Discussion.)
3. Tell the students that they are going to observe
a lateral fault. Show them how to slide the two
parts of the sandwich past each other on the
same level.
Optional Investigations
1. When geologists study layers of rock, they rarely
find them flat and horizontal. Often they will see
layers that are bent or broken. To illustrate these
structures, have the students gently bend their
sandwich to form a hill (always keeping the oldest
layer on the bottom). This is called an anticline.
Have the students bend the sandwich to form a
trough. They now have a syncline. Mountains and
valleys are formed in this way.
Connecting Learning
1. It took about ten minutes for all pairs to build
their sandwich. What is the oldest part? [bottom
layer] Why do you say that? [It was put on first;
everything else went on top of it.]
2. What is the youngest layer of the sandwich? [the
top layer] Why do you say that? [It was the last
thing put on.]
3. What is the age of the shale or wheat bread?
[Somewhere between the oldest and youngest.]
4. Why can’t we say that it is half as old as the
oldest layer and twice as old as the top layer?
[We don’t know how long it took for each layer
to be added.]
5. What is the best way to determine the age of the
limestone layer? …the conglomerate layer? In
any sandwich that is right side up (or a layer
not overturned), how can we best describe the
age of any particular layer? [Any one layer is
younger than what is under it and older than what
is on top of it.
6. What are you wondering now?
2. Sometimes the crust of the Earth moves up or
down. In part, this movement causes earthquakes.
Tell students to cut their sandwiches in half and
move one half up or down. Tell them to hold up
the two halves. Which side moved up or down?
Either the left side moved up and the right side
moved down or the other way around. Ask the
students how they can tell from the model that the
Earth moved. [The layers don’t line up anymore.]
Inform the students that this is a vertical fault.
Have them draw this on their papers.
Core Curriculum/Oklahoma
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© 2006 AIMS Education Foundation
Key Question
How do natural forces
shape the rock layers
of the Earth’s crust?
Learning Goals
1. make a model of rock layers in the
Earth’s crust, and
2. use the model to learn how natural
forces shape the rock layers.
Core Curriculum/Oklahoma
65
© 2006 AIMS Education Foundation
51
Sandwich Layers
Corresponding Layers of Rock
Use this space to describe the processes of weathering, transport, and deposition as
illustrated in this activity.
Core Curriculum/Oklahoma
66
© 2006 AIMS Education Foundation
Core Curriculum/Oklahoma
67
© 2006 AIMS Education Foundation
Core Curriculum/Oklahoma
68
© 2006 AIMS Education Foundation
Connecting Learning
1.
It took about ten minutes for all
pairs to build their sandwich.
What is the oldest part? Why do
you say that?
2.
What is the youngest layer of the sandwich?
Why do you say that?
3.
What is the age of the shale or wheat bread?
4.
Why can’t we say that it is half as old as the
oldest layer and twice as old as the
top layer?
5.
What is the best way to determine the age
of the limestone layer? …the conglomerate
layer? In any sandwich that is right side up
(or a layer not overturned), how can we best
describe the age of any particular layer?
6.
What are you wondering now?
Core Curriculum/Oklahoma
69
© 2006 AIMS Education Foundation