Professor Braile (Purdue University) has done the hard work - you simply need to copy the maps onto cardstock (for the best results) for your students. They color and assemble the maps in the proper order.
Showing posts with label Plate Tectonics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Plate Tectonics. Show all posts
Plate Tectonics: Paper Fault Models
The US Geologic Society and the National Park Service collaborated to create these easy-to-assemble models. They are simply printed out, then cut out and folded accordingly. There are illustrated instructions to help you with the folding and gluing, but I found it to be pretty self-explanatory.
These models are very simple, but they do add a third dimension your fault instruction.
Plate Tectonics: A Look Inside Folds and Faults
This is a great way to visualize what happens when rock layers are folded and subject to subsequent weather, erosion, etc. The activity is based on this lesson.
You'll need four colors of play dough.
Flatten each color into a rectangle about 1 cm thick. Stack the layers on top of one another. This is a good time to review which is the oldest layer (the bottom) and which is the youngest (the top).
Push on two opposite ends of the play dough and watch your rock layers fold. What kind of fold did you make? (anticline)
Use a knife to slice some of the play dough off the top. Look down - What do you see? What do you think the layers look like on the inside?
Slice through the play dough rock layers and observe the cross section.
Place the two halves back together, slightly askew, and you can see what happens to rock layers at a strike-slip fault.
You'll need four colors of play dough.
Flatten each color into a rectangle about 1 cm thick. Stack the layers on top of one another. This is a good time to review which is the oldest layer (the bottom) and which is the youngest (the top).
Push on two opposite ends of the play dough and watch your rock layers fold. What kind of fold did you make? (anticline)
Use a knife to slice some of the play dough off the top. Look down - What do you see? What do you think the layers look like on the inside?
Slice through the play dough rock layers and observe the cross section.
Place the two halves back together, slightly askew, and you can see what happens to rock layers at a strike-slip fault.
Plate Tectonics: Candy Bar Faults
The fastest way to get your students' attention is to break out the candy!
You'll want to use candy bars that have a pliable inside and are coated in chocolate - think Snickers, Milky Way, 3 Musketeers. The chocolate represents the Earth's crust and the filling represents the asthenosphere.
Use your fingernails to break up the chocolate crust - creating the fault.
To demonstrate shearing (strike-slip faults), push the two sides of the candy bar back together. Then slide one half forward while pushing the other one back.
Finally, to demonstrate compression forces, push the two ends of the candy bar together. You'll see the pieces of chocolate crust colliding and maybe even sliding over each other, creating mountains.
Plate Tectonics: Moving Continents
Prep Work:(check out this post, for more information on the gak/putty used in this activity)
Create a solution by dissolving Borax in water. Place a small amount of this solution into a small cup (one for each pair of students). Place a small amount of diluted white glue into another small cup (one for each pair of students).
The Activity:
Each pair of students is given a small (roughly 3”x5”) piece of fun foam. The foam is cut into two pieces – it can be cut in curving or zigzagging lines, but the pieces should not interlock.
Students create the asthenosphere “putty” as follows:
-Obtain two cups – one containing a small amount of glue, the other containing a mixture of Borax and water.
-Pour the Borax mixture into the glue cup
-Stir the mixture using a straw
-After stirring, pour the excess water into the sink
-Knead the putty with your hand for several minutes, until it is no longer sticky
Place the putty onto a plate and pat it into a pancake.
Place the two pieces of foam onto the putty, making sure the cut edges are right next to each other.
Observe your foam pieces for the next five minutes. Draw what occurs at each one-minute interval. Label the distance between the two pieces of foam on each drawing.
Plate Tectonics: Snack Tectonics
What can you do with fruit roll-ups, graham crackers and frosting in your science class?
Have a yummy snack?
You could, but try out this great activity first... then have your snack!
In this Windows to the Universe activity, students use these items to model the different types of plate boundaries: divergent, convergent (oceanic vs. continental and continental vs. continental) and transform.
The fruit roll-ups act as the oceanic crust and the graham crackers are the continental crust (because continental crust is thicker than oceanic). The frosting serves as the mantle, on which the pieces of crust can move around.
Windows to the Universe also provides these great graphics you can turn into PowerPoint slides, overheads, or place on your students' lab sheets.
With materials like these, you'll immediately have your students' attention. And the results aren't too shabby either!
In my experience, the most exciting result comes from the continental - continental convergent boundary - mountains are created!!
Have a yummy snack?
You could, but try out this great activity first... then have your snack!
In this Windows to the Universe activity, students use these items to model the different types of plate boundaries: divergent, convergent (oceanic vs. continental and continental vs. continental) and transform.
The fruit roll-ups act as the oceanic crust and the graham crackers are the continental crust (because continental crust is thicker than oceanic). The frosting serves as the mantle, on which the pieces of crust can move around.
Windows to the Universe also provides these great graphics you can turn into PowerPoint slides, overheads, or place on your students' lab sheets.
With materials like these, you'll immediately have your students' attention. And the results aren't too shabby either!
In my experience, the most exciting result comes from the continental - continental convergent boundary - mountains are created!!
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