Title: Dynamic Earth: Plate tectonic interactions and features they form

Desired Established Goals:

outcomes Students will be able to explain the places in the world that are at highest risks for
events like volcanic eruptions and earthquake occurrence. They will be able to do
this based on their understanding of how different features form in connections to
mantle convection and continental movement.

Meanings Essential Questions:

- How do plate tectonics and magma move in connection to the following
boundaries?
o Convergent subduction boundaries
o Convergent collision boundaries
o Divergent boundaries
o Transform boundaries
- What features form at and what are geographic examples connected to the
following boundary types
o Convergent subduction boundaries
o Convergent collision boundaries
o Divergent boundaries
o Transform boundaries
- What are examples of natural disasters that have occurred as a result of
plate movement at each type of boundary?

Understandings:

- Students will be able to explain what features and processes are connected
to different types of plate tectonic boundaries around the world.

Expected Prior Earlier in this course students will have gone through lessons on continental drift
Student theory, the layers of the earth, and on understanding magma convection.
Knowledge
Standards The student will investigate and understand geologic processes including plate tectonics.
Key concepts include
a) geologic processes and their resulting features; and
b) tectonic processes.

Stay aligned with WIDA standards

Possible 1- Students often dont connect how features on the Earth formed in
misconceptions connection to crustal movement. They often dont think about the scientific
processes that contributed to forming them, or how the formation can result
to natural disasters events such as eruptions and earthquakes

2- Students often connect trenches to divergent movement instead of

convergent subduction movement because it is a big gap in the earth.

Performance Students will be able to demonstrate:

Tasks
 1- Students will summarize articles that explain how plate tectonic processes
have formed geographic locations that interest them.

2- Students will be able to reflect on how models they created demonstrate

how different plate tectonic boundary movement result in various land
features.

3- Students will create a foldable study tool that will organize processes that
occur at plate boundaries, the formation connected to different boundaries,
and geographic examples of different boundaries.

Daily Agenda Day 1 about 45 minutes

for board 1- Look through pictures of plate tectonic features around the world
2- Read and summarize about your location
3- Share your location with partner
4- Discuss locations as a class and look at and interpret maps of earthquakes
and volcanoes around the world.

Day 2 90 minutes
1- What earthquake and volcano activity is going on today? (check out USGS
websites)
2- Go over modeling lab instructions and expectations
3- Complete models and reflections
4- Get feedback from teacher, get stamped, eat materials, and start foldable
activity.
5- Once everyone is stamped: Class discussion about lab

Day 3- 90 minutes
1- What earthquake and volcano activity is going on today? (check out USGS
websites and go over instructions for todays activities
2- Create foldable
3- Create LINCs charts
4- Whiteboard/ small group review
5- Get foldable and LINCs reviewed by teacher and get assigned a group for
elaboration activity, and begin elaboration activity.

Day4-
1- What earthquake and volcano activity is going on today? (check out USGS
websites)
2- Students will have about 45 minutes the next day to finish that activity,
When all students are complete we will discuss the results as a class.

Materials For all activities- Activity packet

needed
Engage -
Computer cart with printer
Articles that match student reading level

Explore- Materials listed in explore activity (enough for each student to make a
model)
 Explain-
Foldable paper
Computer cart with printer
Coloring materials
Whiteboards
PowerPoint and printed questions related to questions.

Explore-
Red and green colored pencils
One piece of basalt and granite for each group (make sure the rocks fit into the
graduated cylinder)
A balance to mass the rocks
One graduated cylinder per student

Engage 1- A couple days before the lesson, have the students look at maps and use
devices to find three different areas in the world that interest them that has
or had one of the features on a list provided to them. Those features would
be earthquakes, volcanoes, mid ocean ridge volcanoes, deep-sea trenches,
and/or non-volcanic mountains. Have the students provide a reason why
the locations are interesting to them. If students have challenges writing
this information, they can type it or dictate it to a teacher who will write it
for them.

2- On the day of the lesson, the teachers will provide the students with a
reading connected to the feature and location they chose that matches their
determined reading level. Each student will be reading about different
locations. Before the students read, the teacher will go through a set of
visual slides that show the different locations and events connected to those
locations that students in the class would be reading about. The students
will summarize how the features/ locations formed and details about the
feature based on what they read.
o Make sure to encourage students to underline/ highlight key
information in their readings.
o Also chunk information for students with lower reading levels that
may get overwhelmed by words. Having the student read a section
and then summarize that section before reading the next section can
do that.

3- Students will also draw a picture or print out a picture connected to their
location. They will then share their information with a partner in the class
assigned by the teacher. The partners will be chosen so students will be
sharing about different types of locations to one another, and so students
wont be sharing information from drastically different levels of reading
with one another.

4- After students have shared, have the students look at the following links and
make observations +inferences connected to volcano activity, earthquake
activity, and plate boundaries. Then introduce the upcoming explore activity
where they will model the formation of different features connected to the
different types of plate boundaries.
 https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/

https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/index.html

Explore 1- Go through the instructions and materials used for the graham cracker and
rice krispy treat plate tectonic modeling activity. Make sure to model and
read aloud the instructions. Also make sure that the students look at the
pictures connected to the instructions.

2- Pass around physical examples of basalt rock and granite rock. Discuss with
the class that oceanic crust is composed of a lot of basalt rock while
continental crust is made of granite rock. Make sure to point out which
parts of their models connect to each rock, and discuss the density(they
have explored this topic before) of the model materials and the rocks. They
will come back to applying this concept in the elaborate section too.

3- Students will each get modeling materials, but they will work in pairs
assigned by the teachers. The pairs should discuss their answers to the
reflections questions, then record their answers in their individual packets.

4- Once completed, the teacher will review their answers with them. When the
students material has been reviewed, they get feedback and discuss
responses to feedback, they will get a happy face stamp on their sheets and
they may eat their supplies if they would like to.

Explain 1- After all the students have completed their explore activity, the class will
have a discussion and review their answers.

2- Students will then create a foldable that has them further research, explain,
and show examples of features connected to different types of plate tectonic
boundaries.

3- After completing the foldable students will choose four vocabulary words
connected to the unit and they will complete a vocabulary LINCing activity
for each of those terms.

4- Students will complete review activity that has them review and practice
applying the information they learned in the unit so far. Students will have
the choice of completing the activity as a whiteboard review or going with
another teacher to go through a worksheet of the answers and verbally
discussing them in a small group.

5- Students will complete a matching activity related to identifying processes

and features that are connected to each type of boundary.

Elaborate Students will apply their understanding of what features connect to different plate
boundaries when completing the plate tectonic lab activity. They will work in
groups of 3-4. This activity has the students infer the interactions of different plate
boundaries in different geographic locations around the world, and it has them
 investigate the control different types of rocks/ their densities have on the
formation of landforms around the world.

Evaluate Formative

1- Students will work together and give feedback to one another in group activities.
Teachers will monitor and take notes on conversations and interactions between
students when completing activities.

2- Teachers will look over written or drawn responses to activities and give written
and/or verbal feedback.

3- Students will use the rubric provided to them to complete their foldable and the
teacher will assess it using the criteria on the rubric.

Summative-

1- Students will complete an open-ended unit test on their Dynamic Earth unit.
Some students will take that test in chunks., and some will have it read aloud to
them.