: A Mini Unit for Engaging Students’ Interest in Learning about Plate Tectonics and Landforms

Teacher Directions:

Objective: Through independent research, group work, presenting information, and learning from other students, students will understand that shifting plates on the earth’s surface affect the formation, placement, and size of many landforms, including mountains, islands, continents, oceans, and cities.

This mini unit uses the following websites:

Surtsey: Iceland's Island: http://www.explorenorth.com/library/weekly/aa042601a.htm(reading level: medium)

Changes for Pacific Ocean http://www.scotese.com/sfsanim.htm(reading level: harder)

Mountain Maker, Earth Shaker http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/tryit/tectonics/#(reading level: easier—many groups use this website)

This Dynamic Earth http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/dynamic.html(reading level: harder)

Underwater Mountains http://kidcrosswords.com/kidoutdoors/where%20to%20go/underwater_mountains.htm(reading level: easier)

The Himalayas http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/himalaya.html(reading level: medium/harder)

You might want to convert these websites into whatever means you typically use to get students to websites quickly and safely—putting on the school’s server or website, making a separate word document that students can pull up as they go about their research, putting them on a personal website etc. I do not have my students type these websites into the internet, but have them accessible on my classroom wikispace. You may need to go through the worksheets and change the directions for where to click. I embedded the websites into the worksheets for clarity.

First Day: Give all students a copy of the Changing Earth Chart. It is two sided to allow for room for students to write what they learn in This is an anticipation guide to get them interested in the information they are about to learn. Read each sentence to students asking them to jot down whether or not they think the statement is true or false. Tell them there is no wrong answer right now, they just need to decide whether they think the idea is true or false.

All statements are true. Students will learn this and why during their research. Here’s the background information for you, but don’t share this information with students yet. 1. Mountains can form when one land mass collides into another. : The Himalayan Mountains formed when India and Asia collided 50 million years ago. 225 million years ago, India was an island.

2. Islands can form when lava piles up on the ocean floor and eventually comes to the surface. : Iceland has an island called Surtsey that was formed by lava erupting and piling up on the ocean floor.

3. Mountains can be found in the ocean. : The earth’s longest mountain change is found in the ocean.

4. It is possible for cities to move so much that they change places with other cities. : Los Angeles, located on the Pacific Plate, is now 340 million miles south of San Francisco, located on the North American plate. In 16 million years, the plates will have moved so much that Los Angeles will be north of San Francisco.

5. Oceans can shrink over time. : The Pacific Ocean basin is slowly shrinking because the Atlantic Ocean basin is opening up and pushing the North America and South America are moving westward.

Optional Step 2: (I typically don’t go through this part of the lesson since the first time I designed it. You might feel like you want to give students background information before they start researching or you might want them to discover these concepts on their own.)

Ask students, “Do you think the world and its landforms change over time? Today we are going to look closely at the earth’s plates and how they interact with one another.” Use the smartboard or have students explore the following website in partners: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/tryit/tectonics/#

Click on Plate Tectonics activity. Discuss the different kinds of plate movements and how they affect landforms, including: sea floor spreading, divergent plates (earthquakes), convergent plates (volcanoes), and collision boundaries (mountains). Have students think about what would happen in common sense terms if two plates came together and subducted, collided,

separated, and stretched. Do this for each term, then allow students to play with the movements of the plates on the website.

Day 2-3: (If you didn’t spend time previewing the PBS website with the class and letting the students explore it, you would be able to start the research on the first day).

Students begin researching one of the 5 concepts above. They need the two page worksheet that goes with their concept. I typically form groups before the lesson, think about students reading levels, etc. to decide which fact they will research, but if you have a pretty homogenous leveled group, you could let them choose which fact they are most interested in researching, keeping in mind that the number of students per fact needs to be about the same. You can also support students more by having them work in partners, but I like for each student to be responsible for recording information on their individual sheets.

Day 3 or 4: After students have completed their research, students will get together with all other students that have studied the same fact. First, students should go over the answers to the questions on the worksheet. Then, decide on what key concepts they will teach the class. Students quickly design a poster that must include a graphic/diagram and the main idea/facts that they will teach other students. (Remind them that they can use NONFICTION text features like bold words, vocabulary textboxes, diagrams, question/answer formats, etc). When students have shown a plan and you approve, they may get poster/chart paper and begin. This typically takes students one class session, especially if you keep reminding them how much time they have and that they need to stay paced in order to finish.

Last Day: Students share posters. Obviously one way to do this is whole group. The best way I have found to do this is to have the posters spaced out around the room, have two students per group stay at their poster while the rest of the class rotates through the posters. You can time the rotations and tell the class when they can move on. While learning about the facts they have not researched, students should have their recording chart from the first lesson. While they are being taught, they must take notes on important information they learned and then create an illustration/diagram that goes with the topic. Half way through the rotations, you should switch out the partners at the posters so that other group members are able to teach and the students who have been teaching are able to go around and learn about the other posters.

If you wanted students to go into more detail or if this is a more in depth concept for your curriculum, you could have them make powerpoints. You could also use each research guide to have each student learn about the concepts individually which would also extend the unit.

According to your goals and how in depth you want students to learn about each of the types of plates, you can include further research. This mini-unit is an introduction to landforms for my students. As I teach landforms, I get students to think about how the earth changes over millions of years and how it changes during our lifetime through weathering and erosion.

Anticipation Guide/Note Sheet

Statement: True/False: Information Learned: Diagram/Picture:

Mountains can form when one land mass collides into another.

Islands can form when lava piles up on the ocean floor and eventually comes to the surface.

Statement: True/False: Information Learned: Important Picture:

Mountains can be found in the ocean.

It is possible for cities to move so much that they change places with other cities.

Oceans can shrink over time.

Iceland’s Island of Fire

Name: Date:

Before researching: Please read the following definitions and draw a picture to show your understanding of some of the vocabulary you will encounter in your reading.

Fissure: a narrow crack or opening in the earth

Pumice: a porous, light rock produced by volcanic activity, gray in color

Waterspout: a tornado or whirlwind forming over an ocean

Go to http://www.explorenorth.com/library/weekly/aa042601a.htm to learn about Surtsey: Iceland’s Island of Fire. As you read through the website, answer the following questions:

How did the Island of Surtsey form?

When did this take place?

How long did it take after the eruption began for an island to form?

How big is the island?

Why do you think this would be a good place to study the “evolution of new land” and the evolution of ecosystems?

Please click on SURTSEY TOPOGRAPHY and view different landforms on Surtsey. Scan the paragraph to find on how long scientists think the island will last. _________What force will eventually cause the island to disappear? ________________________

Go back to your main page by clicking the back button.

Click on the next to last “SURTSEY” link. View pictures from the island.

Why do you think Surtsey is called “Iceland’s Island of Fire?”

Please record any other interesting thoughts or facts you discovered. You may explore the other links on the Surtsey Website.

Changes for the Pacific Ocean

Name: Date:

Before researching: Please read the following definitions and draw a picture to show your understanding of some of the vocabulary you will encounter in your reading.

Converge: to come together—in this case at a fast pace in a collision

Basin: a pocket in the earth’s surface that is hollow and usually filled with water

Ridge: a rift of crack in the ocean floor where new ocean floor is produced

Go to http://www.scotese.com/sfsanim.htm As you read through the website, answer the following questions:

What is the theory of plate tectonics?

What happens when two plates converge (or come together)?

What two kinds of activities take place around the subduction zones?

What happens when plates move apart?

What is produced at the mid-ocean ridge? What is this process called?

How were the ocean basins of today formed?

Scroll down to the third paragraph and click PACIFIC.

Which ocean is the world’s largest? How much space does it take up?

What is happening to the Pacific Ocean and why is this change taking place?

Which ocean is getting larger?

Please record any other interesting thoughts or facts you discovered.

Slipping and Sliding: The San Andreas Fault

Name: Date:

Before researching: Please read the following definitions and draw a picture to show your understanding of some of the vocabulary you will encounter in your reading.

Transform Boundary:

a place in the earth where crust is neither created or consumed; two plates slide by one another

Fault: a crack in the earth’s crust that results from one side of the fault area being displaced from the other side

Now go to http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/dynamic.html. CLICK on the Picture titled Understanding Plate Motions. Scroll down to the heading that says TRANSFORM BOUNDARIES. This is the only section you need to pay attention to.

Look closely at where Los Angeles and San Francisco are located on the map. (Write down any observations).

What state does the San Andreas Fault slice through?

How far does the Pacific plate move in one year? (Use a ruler to draw this distance).

How many centimeters has the plate moved in ten years?

What direction is Los Angeles (on the west side of the fault) moving?

Underwater Mountains

Name: Date:

Before researching: Please read the following definitions and draw a picture to show your understanding of some of the vocabulary you will encounter in your reading.

Trenches: a deep, narrow line in the ocean floor with steep sides

Diverge: to pull apart, move in different directions, or separate

Ridge: a rift of crack in the ocean floor where new ocean floor is produced

Type in Underwater Mountain into Google.

Where are most mountains in the world found?

Where is the world’s longest mountain chain found?

What is the mountain chain called?

Please trace a line on the map below to show where the mountain chain is found.

Where is the world’s tallest mountain found?

Why does this mountain not really seem like the tallest mountain on earth?

The Continental Crush: Himalayan Mountains

Name: Date:

Before researching: Please read the following definitions and draw a picture to show your understanding of some of the vocabulary you will encounter in your reading.

Collision: to collide or bump into something, usually very quickly and causing damage

Subduct: sub (to take away); where one plate or part of the crust is overtaken by another and goes below it

Contort: to twist, bend, or become out of shape

Go http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/himalaya.html .

As you read through the website, answer the following questions:

How were the Himalayan Mountains formed?

What kind of landmass was India about 225 million years ago?

Where was it found at that time?

What happened when India collided into the Asian continent?

Why do you think this happened?

Are the Himalayan Mountains still growing? Why do you think this?

How much are the Himalayan Mountains growing per year?

How much have the mountains grown in your lifetime?

Skip down to the last paragraph. What is the concern surrounding this type of plate movement? (You can use two words to answer this question.)

Now explain.

Mountain Maker, Earth Shaker: Types of Plate Movementshttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/tryit/tectonics/#

Plate Boundary Type What Happens at this type of Plate Diagram/Illustration

divergent boundary

convergent boundary

collision boundary

transform boundary