Download Unit Day 1

Day 1
E.S. 8 c.) tectonic processes (subduction, rifting and sea floor spreading, and continental
collision)
Earth: Portrait Of A Planet (Geology 110 textbook)
Lab found online for crust examples
Topic: Geological tectonic processes
Title: Tectonic Processes
Instructional Objective(s):
To re-introduce students to plate tectonics and the plates covering the earth. My
beginning demonstration will show the students that the plates control geological
processes and they are driven by the Earth’s interior heat.
Knows: Earth consists of a solid, mostly iron inner core; a liquid, mostly iron outer core; a
rocky, plastic mantle; and a rocky, brittle crust.
Relative plate motions and plate boundaries are convergent (subduction and continental
collision), divergent (sea floor spreading), or transform.
Ocean crust is relatively thin, young, and dense.
Continental crust is relatively thick, old, and less dense.
Continental drift is a consequence of plate tectonics.
Major features of divergent boundaries include mid-ocean ridges, rift valleys, and fissure
volcanoes.
When rocks are compressed horizontally, their layers may be deformed into wave-like
forms called folds. This commonly occurs during continental collisions.
A volcano is an opening where magma erupts onto Earth’s surface. Most volcanic
activity is associated with subduction, rifting, or sea floor spreading.
Materials & Resources
Water, (room temp. and heated), food coloring, pipette, clear plastic bin, silly putty,
flubber, Kayro Syrup, aquarium
Engage
At the beginning of class, I will do a demonstration showing heat by convection cells
using the plastic bin, water, food coloring, hot and room temp. water.
Explore
The students will begin an ongoing lab. They will be making an aquarium with Kayro
syrup, flubber and silly putty. They will be required to make continental and oceanic
plates. They will explore what happens when the plates collide with one another. What
is the oceanic plate doing in comparison to the continental plate? Why is the oceanic
plate being subducted?
Explain
Each group should experience the same thing, (the heavier, more dense plate will be
subducted). If a group has something different happen, have them explain to the class
what happened and ask everyone (anyone to answer) why this could have possibly
happened? Was it the students’ “fault” or was it something that could possibly happen?
The groups will be small (3-4 people per group) so everyone can see close-up what is
occurring.
Extend
The way to extend this to the students is to ask them to look out the window and see the
mountains in the distance and question and explain why are they there? Seeing the
mountains and demonstrating to the students that they were created millions of years
ago so they can relate it to real-life and something they encounter everyday. I’ll be sure
to explain that it was millions of years ago and assure them that we will cover geological
time in the next few days. New situations would be that this is occurring today, as we
speak, however because it is happening so slowly, we cannot see the actual mountain
building.
Evaluate
The students will be given a worksheet as an exit card. There will be a matching section
at the bottom that has pictures of subduction, seafloor spreading, oceanic and
continental plates and the students will be required to do matching at the end of class
after the lab. It will be on their lab report as well, so I can look over lab reports and make
sure students are seeing the same things.
Plans for Diversity
The students will be given a lab report that will consist of mostly pictures that are
already drawn or pictures that they will be required to draw/label when they see
what happens between the 2 plate types.
Connections
The next few days we will be continuing to build upon this concept. We will be covering
what are the resulting factors of these processes, geological time (absolute and relative),
fossils, etc.
Reflections
This lesson fits well that I like students to be given the opportunity to teach one another
and help each other with any misconceptions (lab groups) and they get to actually see
the plates moving around in mantle like material. Since it’s something so huge, this
helps to bring it to scale.
When applicable, include your assessment of the lesson’s success after teaching the
lesson.
Safety Considerations
Safety goggles, pep talks that this stuff is not a flying object, nor is it edible.