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DYNAMIC EARTH
Indicator # 1
Students will analyze how Earth’s crustal plates are influenced by activity in the mantle
and core to produce major geologic events (e.g., layers of the earth, mountain building,
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, ocean basin formation, sea-floor spreading, and
subduction).
Enduring Knowledge
The process of heat transfer within the Earth’s interior produces convection currents.
Convection currents are the driving forces behind plate tectonics. In turn, plate tectonics is
responsible for both constructive and destructive forces, which have drastically changed the
Earth’s surface.
Throughout the study of this indicator, students should focus on the following questions:
 How does the Earth’s interior influence Earth’s surface?
 How do plate movements impact various features of the Earth?
Background Information
Throughout Earth’s history, its surface has been pushed up into mountains, pushed down into
trenches, broken along faults, and divided into ridges. Geologists divide the forces that change
the surface of the Earth into two groups: constructive and destructive forces. Constructive forces
shape the surface by building new landmasses such as mountains. Destructive forces are
responsible for wearing away or destroying existing landmasses. The changing surface of the
Earth is related to the processes which occur inside the Earth’s interior.
Convection currents, which result from heat transfer among the Earth’s layers, drive the process
of plate tectonics. Plate tectonics is the geological theory that states that pieces of the Earth’s
lithosphere are in constant, slow motion, driven by convection currents in the mantle. The theory
of plate tectonics explains the formation, movement, and subduction of the Earth’s plates. No
plate can move without affecting other plates surrounding it. As the crustal plates move, they
collide, pull apart, or grind past each other. This movement is responsible for the changes on the
Earth’s surface.
An understanding of how plate tectonics influence geologic events that shape the Earth’s surface
will be developed in this indicator. Students will investigate and explore the Earth’s layers, how
movement along plate boundaries builds or destroys Earth’s crust, and how plate tectonics is the
force behind earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain building.
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Summative Assessment
Students will complete a comprehensive test which incorporates selected response and true or
false questions. The test also includes a section in which students will need to interpret diagrams
to explain the structure and composition of the Earth and plate movement along plate boundaries.
The test is concluded with a constructed response question which deals with the fact that plate
tectonics influences earthquake and volcanic activity.
Suggestions for Instruction

Provide appropriate reading for information activities. Suggested reference texts include
Prentice Hall: Science Explorer Inside Earth and Prentice Hall: Dynamic Earth. Topics
include Earth’s interior, drifting continents and sea-floor spreading, the theory of plate
tectonics, earthquakes, and volcanoes.

Complete the investigation, “Making a Scale Model of the Earth’s Interior” Student Resource
Sheet DE-1.

Provide a reading or other introductory lesson on convection currents for students to gain
working knowledge of the processes that drive convection currents in the Earth’s interior.

Complete the investigation, “Ride The Convection Coaster” Student Resource Sheet DE-2.

Complete the investigation, “Slip Sliding Away” Student Resource Sheet DE-3

Conduct a variety of investigations which reinforce the theory of plate tectonics, the types of
boundaries, and the landforms that are created and/or destroyed as a result of plate tectonics.
Suggested references include Prentice Hall: Science Explorer Inside Earth, Teaching
Resources with Color Transparencies. Sample reinforcement activities can be found on
pages 32 – 33 and 48 – 49. Additional references include Prentice Hall: Dynamic Earth,
Review and Reinforcement Guide pages 23 – 24.

Conduct investigations which explains sea-floor spreading and the theory of continental drift.
Suggested references include Prentice Hall: Science Explorer Inside Earth, Teaching
Resources with Color Transparencies. A sample activity for sea-floor spreading can be
found on pages 35 – 37. Additional reinforcement activities can be found in Prentice Hall:
Dynamic Earth, Activity Book pages 73-83.

Complete the activity, “Locating An Epicenter” Student Resource Sheet DE-4.

Provide activities which explain the landforms that can be created from volcanic activity (i.e.,
shield volcanoes, composite volcanoes, cinder cone volcanoes, lava plateaus, volcanic necks,
batholiths, and dome mountains). Pages 103 – 107 in Prentice Hall: Science Explorer
Inside Earth provide reading material on these landforms. A sample investigation on the
formation of lava plateaus can be found on page 86 in Prentice Hall: Science Explorer
Inside Earth, Teaching Resources with Color Transparencies.
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