Middle School Inquiry Lab on Plate Tectonics
In this lab students will create tectonic plates and observe the results from each of the activities. Students will also be asked why the location of the activity affects the types of formations found.
Each inquiry lab will contain an essential question that will drive the lesson and make students think. For this lesson, the essential question is:
- What crustal features are formed at plate boundaries? What occurs at plate boundaries because of geological forces?
BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND MATERIALS LIST:
Students will begin the lab by reading the essential question and background information. This can be done individually, as lab groups, or as a whole class. If you consider lab groups, you also might include some type of whole class formative checks before digging into the lab.
Materials List:
- sheet of wax paper
- plastic knife
- 1 whole graham cracker
- 1 tub of frosting
- 1 red Fruit Roll-Up
- cup of water
PROCEDURE:
This inquiry lab will give the students a chance to play with their food, all in the name of science. Doing a little pre-work, getting the materials to specific sizes, this lab will have the students witness what happens when certain plate boundaries interact with other plate boundaries. This lab contains a total of four different sections representing the four types of plate boundary interactions: oceanic divergent, oceanic/continental convergent, continental convergent, and transform boundaries.
Students will recreate the actions and reactions of what happens or what is created as plates interact with one another. From spreading apart to sliding past one another, students will get a better understanding as to which plate boundaries will create volcanic eruptions and which will cause earthquakes.
CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING:
At this point in the lab, students will be checked for understanding by answering questions about their findings. Here is one that comes with the lab:
- Explain how the different plate boundaries create different landforms.
CONCLUSION
Students will go back to the essential question and write a CER (Claim, Evidence, Reasoning) to conclude the lab. Once completed, students will reflect back on their learning by answering the following questions:
- What types of shifts can cause mountain ranges?
- Which layer of Earth causes shifts in the plate boundaries, and how does this happen?
- Which geological event is created in a transform slide?
MODIFIED AND INDEPENDENT INQUIRY VERSIONS
All of the Kesler Science inquiry labs come with three different modification levels. Each lab is differentiated using the icons below.
STANDARDS ALIGNMENT
TEKS: 6.10D – Describe how plate tectonics cause major geological events such as ocean basins, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and mountain building.
