National Standards Grades 5-8:

• Structure of the earth system
• Earth's history structure of the earth system
• The earth processes, including erosion, movement of lithospheric plates, and changes in atmospheric composition
• Earth history is also influenced by occasional catastrophes, such as the impact of an asteroid or comet.
• Fossils provide important evidence of how life and environmental conditions have changed.

Many of the activities in this unit are derived from and make use of the book The Amazing Earth Model Book Easy-to-make Hands-on Model That Teach, Donald M Silver; Patricia Wynne.  New York:  Scholastic Professional Books, 1997.

Hereafter, this book will be referenced as TAEMB
If this resource is not available, an alternative is to challenge students to create original paper models.

The following website has many many free templates for this activity.  You will use this site often during this unit so be sure to bookmark it as a favorite.

Let's Book It with tech'knowledge'y

Having learners create their own models does require more time but the process of working through conceptualization and then construction is a powerful learning experience.  Encourage students to use the above website as a jumping off point.  For the same assignment one student might choose a circle template while another could select fan template while another picks a step page template.

Accumulate a collection of pop-up books.  Look for them at garage or tag sales.  The books will be used many, many times as learners use them to garner ideas and figure out the engineering aspects of pop-ups. You will read and share aloud as well as demonstrate the pop-up books at the beginning and/or end of lessons several times a week for the next several weeks. Ideally, the subject of the pop up would coincide with the content but need not always be content driven. The idea is to give students a lot of experiences with a wide range of pop up books.

Each time you share read aloud books be sure to point out the cover of the book prepares the audience for what is coming inside the pages. If there is a dedication page share that with students and explain what a dedication page is. Show students the back cover and tell them that all books have both a front and back page.

The vocabulary set has not been delineated by subtopic.  Rather the intent is that the vocabulary be embedded throughout the entire unit.  

Topic One: Plate Tectonics

Science Content: The theory of plate tectonics explains many geological phenomena. Plate movements can be convergent, divergent or transform. At convergent boundaries between continents and oceanic plates, such as happened in the past along the coast of California, the denser oceanic plate moved under the continental plate. As this happened, the upper layers of the oceanic plate were scraped off onto the continental plate. Thus, we now have local rocks that were formed underwater in the mid-Pacific. Geologists used the composition of these rocks and their fossils to determine the conditions (underwater) and locations (Pacific Ocean) of their formation to help them piece together this history of our local rocks. 

Day 1:

Objective - Students inventory, recognize and record their prior knowledge about the earth's plates and plate interactions, layers of the earth and the dynamics of changes in the earth's surface.

1) KWL for "Earth Dynamics."  Pre-assessment.

2) Introduce vocabulary list.  Instruct learners to include in their KWL any terms that they are already familiar with.

3) Read/share a commercially made pop-up book.  Content is not relevant.  The idea is to  share with learners a variety of pop-up books over the next 5 days.  If learners have questions, like, "What does this have to do with Plate tectonics?"  You could hint that the culminating project for this unit has something to do with pop-up books.
Day 2:

Objective - Students investigate the earth's plates and plate interactions along plate boundaries as they produce and analyse sections of plate boundaries.

Describe the evidence for and the development of the theory of plate tectonics.

1) World Map Transparencies and Plate motions and boundaries activity (see document).

2) Read/share a commercially made pop-up book.  Introduce project: Pop-up book.  Distribute pop-up book rubric.

Day 3:

Objective -  Students are able to differentiate layers of the Earth and illusrate the basic layers of the Earth.

Layers of the Earth (see document)

Day 4:

Objective -  Student identify the three types of plate boundaries.  They explore the three plate boundary types of geological features.  Examine how plates interact with each other to give the continents and geographic landmasses we have today.  And link how convection currents contribute to the moving of continents.

1) Read aloud and share a commercially designed Pop Up Book

2) Lecture: continental drift, components of the earth's interior -  Intro with video located here.

Please preview this video before showing to be aware that the word “hell” is used. An alternative though, a less graphic and less visually interesting video such as Geology: The Structure of the Earth would be a good substitute.

3) Search How Stuff Works and find a huge amount of video clips that can be used for whole class viewing.  You might want to ask teams of students to use the site, select their favorite and share it with the rest of the class.

Day 5:

Objective - Students recognize that the earth's surface is in constant movement.  They are able to generalize that the layers of the earth, convection currents, earthquakes and volcanoes are all connected to the science of plate tectonics and the use of fossil evidence  as indirect evidence.

1) Discuss the idea of change over time and that the layout of the earth is continuously changing. Read pp 110 - 124  Moving Plates in TAEMB.

Alternatively:  Challenge students to create original paper models that demonstrate the movement of plates in the Earth's crust.

The following website has many many free templates which students can access for this activity.

Let's Book It with tech'knowledge'y 

Be sure to create the model yourself prior to having your students do it, in order to anticipate potential problems.

2) Photocopy and distribute pp 114-116 (TAEMB) and make available scissors, tape or glue, crayons, color pencils or markers.

3) Guide students through the Making the Model section on pp 111 and 112 (TAEMB).

4) Assist learners as needed to complete the model.  Place the completed model in student's manila folder.  This work sample could be included in the final pop-up book as an evidence of learning.  Refer to the vocabulary list and encourage students to include terms as appropriate into the model description or labels.

Day 6:

Objective - Students continue to assimulate information related to plate tectonics and how it accounts for the locations of continents and oceans today.  

1) Read aloud and share a commercially prepared pop-up book.

2) Lecture: Plate Tectonics (see notes document). The following website is helpful.  With comprehensive and colorful graphics students can access a lot of information.  http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/understanding.html

This site has a terrific flip book model that could augment the lesson.  The flipbook could become a page in the pop-up book.

3) Manipulative activity. Plate Puzzle Poster Read p 119 (TAEMB) Be sure to create the model yourself prior to having your students do it in order to anticipate potential problems. Copy and distribute pp 122 and 123 (TAEMB).

Alternatively: The following website provides a "plate tectonics puzzle" which you can print out and have students use to create a puzzle of what the earth may have looked like in the past.

The continents fit together during pangaea like the pieces of a puzzle. Challenge the students to put the puzzle together to make their best estimate of what pangaea looked like. Ask students to check their work with you prior to gluing down their pieces. You will want to make sure you know where the actual continents were at the time of Pangaea by visiting this website. 

Have art supplies available as per previous days.

4) Place the completed model in student's manila folder.  This work sample could be included in the final pop-up book as an evidence of learning.

5) Show the metaphor example.  The learner's task is to create a metaphor for the concept of plate tectonics. Guide student through the Metaphor activity.

Day 7:

Objective - Students begin to integrate and construct new information into their own schemata through a synthesis activity of creating a poetic relationship between vocabulary terms .

1) Return student's KWL worksheets completed Day 1 and stored in their manila folders. Using all the resources  available to them from previous lessons, activities, reading materials and web searches, ask learnes to complete the L (Learned) section of the KWL.  Ask if they were surprised by any of the information?  What was most interesting?  Did you think something was a fact about plate tectonics and later found it was not correct?  If so, write a sentence or two about that.

2) Collect the completed KWL and file in manila folders.

3) Discuss ideas forming for the pop-up book project.  How might some of the activities completed so far be used in a pop-up book.

4) Write and illustrate Cinquain poems around the topic of Plate Tectonics (refer to Cinquain document): ticket out the door.  Collect and place illustrated student's Cinquain poem in their manila folders.  Encourage students to refer to the vocabulary list as potential word selections for their poems.

5) Read aloud and share a commercially prepared pop up book.

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Topic Two: Earthquakes

In addition to creating one KWL as an introductory/pre-assessment activity of  Earth Dynamics, each subtopics should begin with a KWL as an introduction to the particular topic.  For example, the following prompts could be used to stimulate more recall of details around earthquakes:

• What do you already know about earthquakes?
• How much damage do earthquakes cause? Why?
• Where have earthquakes occurred recently?

The following are helpful websites for learners to explore to gather information about earthquakes.

Day 8

Objective -  Students inventory, recognize and record their prior knowledge about the dynamics of earthquakes.  Students predict how earthquakes result from plate motions.

1) Read aloud and share a commercially prepared pop-up book.

2) KWL - Earthquakes - Pre-assessment - see KWL instructions for details.

3) Discuss how plate tectonics influence earthquakes. Look at the overhead maps (Day 2) again. Is there a connection?  How much damage do earthquakes cause? Why? Where have earthquakes occurred recently? (visit usgs.gov) Use the discussion of these questions as a starting point for notes. For an outline lecture on earthquakes, see the "earthquake notes" document.

4) Earthquake Fault Model (see document)

5) Provide learners opportunity to web search earthquakes.  Here are a couple of addresses that are interesting.

• Earthquakes for Kids ;
• FEMA's Earthquakes Website;
• the KSU Earthquakes page ;
• the ABAG Earthquake Info Kids Zone;
• the Yahoo! Kids Earthquake website

Day 9:

Objective - Students will create an Earthquake Family Plan or an Earthquake Survival Kit plan.

If possible, show a video of earthquake preparedness.  There are several available on the internet for free download.

Have students access this eHow website. Using this website as a guide line and working with their parents/grandparents/guardians, have students create - specific to their own family - an Earthquake Family Plan.  

Teacher can prepare a template for students if that would be helpful.  However, this activity is more about thinking through and having conversations with family members about the specifics of what they do in the event of a major earthquake.

The completed plan will become a part of the pop-up book.   Collect and file in manila folders.

Day 10:

Objective -  Students will create their own original pop-up page related to the effects of earthquakes on Earth's surface.

1) Read aloud and share a commercially prepared pop-up book.

2)  Students can choose one of the following to create a pop-up page: tsunamis, floods, or changes in natural and man-made structures. Provide students with pop up books to investigate and Irvine's books to find potential models to emulate. Construction or index paper, art supplies, glue, scissors, magazines for cut and paste. This project will take about two class periods to complete.

Day 11:

Objective -  Students will create their own original pop-up page related to the effects of earthquakes on Earth's surface.

1) Complete pop-up page related to earthquakes, as per Day 10.

2) Write and Illustrate a Cinquain poem around the topic of Earthquake. Use scoring guide provided

3) Distribute Earthquake KWL and ask students to complete the Learned column. Refer learners to the vocabulary list and ask them to include any learned terms.

4) Collect the original pop-up page, completed Cinquain and KWL. Place all three pieces in student manila folders.

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Topic Three: Volcanoes

In addition to creating one KWL as an introductory/pre-assessment activity of  Earth Dynamics, each of the subtopics should have a KWL as an introduction to the particular topic.  For example, the Day 12 prompts could be used to stimulate more recall of details around volcanoes.

Day 12:

Objective -  Students inventory, recognize and record their prior knowledge about the dynamics of volcanoes.  Students predict how volcanoes relate to plate motions

1) Read aloud and share a commercially prepared pop-up book.

2) Discuss how plate tectonics influence volcanoes. Look at the overhead maps again, what is the connection? What do students already know about volcanoes? How much damage do volcanoes cause? Why? How does this compare to earthquakes? Why? Where have volcanic eruptions occurred recently? (visit Volcano Hazards) Present a lecture for notes (see "volcano notes" document).

Day 13:

Objective - Students construct a model of volcano eruption.

1) Give 'em what they want: build a volcano and use Mentos and coke for the explosion, then use baking soda and vinegar and compare the two explosions.

Baking soda and vinegar volcano lab:simply add baking soda to a container with vinegar. The amounts are fun to have students guess or estimate before you begin adding. And, depending on the size of your container, you will want to adjust the amounts you add. Play around with this and let the students try to figure out an appropriate ratio. You can also find specific directions at this website.

Mentos and Diet Coke volcano lab:as soon as you open a 2-liter Diet Coke bottle, rapidly drop several Mentos in the bottle. You can attempt to put the cap back on, but probably won't have time (I wouldn't bother). Just for fun, try different types of sodas to see which one gets the best "explosion." Also, ask for students to think of better methods for adding the Mentos. This is messy and fun. You can also find specific directions here.

2) See metaphor activity. Show the metaphor example.  The learner's task is to create a metaphor for the concept of volcanoes. Guide students through the Metaphor activity. Collect and add to the manila folders for potential /optional inclusion in the pop up book.

3) Refer to the vocabulary list.  Ask students to identify any terms are directly related to the topic of volcanoes.  You may want to create a crossword puzzle of the terms to send home as a homework assignment.

Day 14:

Objective -  Students will construct and color the inside a Volcano model.

Volcano Anatomy: Be sure to do this yourself prior to having students do the activity to anticipate difficulties and/or questions

1) Copy and Distribute pp 22, 25, and the bottom of page 30

Alternatively:  Use the volcano diagram from this website. Have students color and fold the volcano model as the website instructs. Be sure labels are visible.

2) Students will color and construct the Inside a Volcano model, which should then be fixed to an 8.5 x 11 single sheet for inclusion in their pop up book.

3) Collect and file in manila folders.

4) Read aloud and share a commercially prepared pop-up book.

Day 15 and 16: Refer to this website.

Objective - Students will originate and produce original pop-up pages to demonstrate understanding of the dynamics of 2 types of volcanoes.

1) Share with students the three main types of volcanoes: composite, shield and cinder cone and some basic information.

2) Assign reading of available earth science text volcano section.

3) Students will create a their own original pop-up page related to volcanoes. Students should include one of the following to create a pop-up page: composite, shield, cinder cone, or other. Provide students with pop up books to investigate and Irvine's books to find potential models to emulate. Construction or index paper, art supplies, glue, scissors, magazines for cut and paste. This project will take about two class periods to complete. Work on pop-up books.

4) Illustrated Cinquain poem with a Volcano topic.

5) Distribute individual Volcano KWL and ask students to complete the Learned column.

6) Collect Cinquain, completed KWL and volcano pop up page and file in manila folders.

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Topic Four: Mountain Building

Day 17:

Objective -  Students inventory, recognize and record their prior knowledge about how mountains are formed.  Students predict how mountain building is related to plate motions

1) Read aloud and share a commercially prepared pop-up book.

2) KWL as an introductory/pre-assessment activity; see KWL instructions for details. The following prompts could be used to stimulate more recall of details around mountain building.  Remember to keep these in student folders, after reviewing them for pre-assessment purposes. Students may find this a little more challenging as their prior knowledge about how mountains and mountain ranges form. Refer to the vocabulary list and encourage students to include terms they are currently familiar with.

3) Discuss how plate tectonics and mountain building are related. How is this different from the relationship with volcanoes? Earthquakes? Have these mountains always been where they are? Have they always existed? If not, where was all of this matter before it was a mountain? Look at overhead maps again. Refer back to the plate tectonics lessons.

4) Present outline lecture for mountain building (see notes document)

Day 18: Minute Rice and Rock Recycle Wheel

Objective - Students will explain the rock cycle in terms of constructive (crustal deformation, volcanic eruptions, and sediment depostion) and destructive (weathering and erosion) forces in land formation.

1) Discuss with students The Rock Cycle chapter beginning on p 55 of TAEMB

2) Copy and distribute pp 58 and 59 TAEMB and a brass fastener for each learner.

Alternatively

3) An excellent companion lab can be found here and/or there are some interesting resources related to the rock cycle here.

4) Read aloud and share a commercially prepared pop-up book.

Day 19: Remember to make this model yourself prior to assigning it to learners.

Objective - Students create mini-books showing how a mountain range forms when two plates collide. Students begin to integrate and construct new information into their own schemata through a synthesis activity of creating a poetic relationship between vocabulary terms .

1) Photocopy p 117 TAEMB

Alternatively: After examining the ways mountains begin to form, have students develop their own pop-ups illustrating the processes learned. 

2) Provide scissors, tape, color pencils, crayons and/or markers

3) Attach the mini-book to a single 8.5 x 11 paper

4) Collect and place in manila folder. This will become a page in the pop up book.

5) Illustrated Cinquain poem with a mountain building topic

6) Distribute individual mountain building KWL and ask students to complete the Learned column. Refer to the vocabulary list and encourage students to include terms learned that apply to the concept of mountain building.

7) Collect Cinquain and completed KWL; file in manila folders

Day 20:

Objective - Students will begin Putting it all together: Make connections between the four topics.

1)  Students will develop a mind map of these connections. This work will become the front cover for the pop-up book.  Refer to the vocabulary list students should include all the terms or as many as possible.  Remember to encourage illustration and other graphic representation of terms and relationships.

Day 21:

Objective - Students will continue to Put it all together: Make connections between the four topics through a collage composition.

Collage (see Collage Instructions document)

Day 22:

Objective - Students will continue to Put it all together: Make connections between the four topics through synthesis of ideas in a book cover.

Cover construction and dedication page work day (see pop-up book instructions document)

Day 23:

Objective - Students will critique and appraise their own understanding and work around the topics involved in Earth dynamics.

Work day and self-evaluation: students will use the pop-up book rubric provided to them at the beginning of the unit to evaluate their books and look for areas to improve.

Day 24: Editing and binding (see pop-up book instructions document)

Day 25:

Objective - Students will critique and appraise their peer's understanding and work around the topics involved in Earth dynamics.

Peer review: students will critique classmates' books based on the rubric

Day 26: Pop-up books due, reflection (see document)

Additional helpful websites

Earthquakes Hazards Program

Paper Forest (Pop-up Book Blog)

Geology: Plate Tectonics (UC Berkeley)

World Map Oultine

Earthquake Faces (Earthquake Hazards Program)

Explorations in Earth Science (Purdue University)

Volcano Hazards Program Fact Sheets and Posters

This Dynamic Planet (USGS)

Dynamic Earth Grade Level 6 – 9

National Standards: 6.4 Earth Science Standards

Structure of the earth system

Earth's history - The earth processes, we see today, including erosion, movement of lithospheric plates, and changes in atmospheric composition, are similar to those that occurred in the past. Earth history is also influenced by occasional catastrophes, such as the impact of an asteroid or comet.

Fossils provide important evidence of how life and environmental conditions have changed over time.

Rationale: The earth consists of several layers. The three main layers are the core, the mantle and the crust. The core is the inner part of the earth, the crust is the outer part and between them is the mantle. The atmosphere surrounds the earth. Till this moment it hasn't been possible to take a look inside the earth because the current technology doesn't allow it. Therefore all kinds of research had to be done to find out, out of which material the earth consists, what different layers there are and which influence those have (had) on the earth's surface. This research is called seismology.

The earth's crust consists of a number of moving pieces or plates that are always colliding or pulling apart. The Lithosphere consists of nine large plates and twelve smaller ones. The continents are embedded in continental plates; the oceanic plates make up much of the sea floor. The study of Tectonic plates - called plate tectonics - helps to explain continental drift, the spreading of the sea floor, volcanic eruptions and how mountains are formed. The force that causes the movement of the tectonic plates may be the slow churning of the mantle beneath them. Mantle rock is constantly moved upwards to the surface by the high temperatures below and then sinks by cooling. This cycle takes millions of years.

Continental drift: The drift of the plates across the surface of the earth has been going on over millions of years, which still changes the outward appearance of the earth. When you look at the map of the world, you see how well the east coast of North and South America fits into the west coast of Europe and Africa. Over millions of years these continents have slowly drifted apart. (Continental drift).

Diverging plates: Where plates pull apart, hot molten rock (fluid magma) emerges as lava and so new matter is added to the plates. In this way new oceanic plates are formed. The place where this happens is known as a mid-ocean ridge. Mid-ocean ridges are rarely more than about 4,920 ft. (1,500 m) high, but they may snake along the ocean bed for thousands of miles. Beneath each of the world's great oceans there is a mid-ocean ridge. An example is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the Atlantic Ocean, which stretches from the North Pole to the South Pole. Mid-ocean ridges are areas of much volcanic and earthquake activity.

Converging plates: In many places the huge plates of the earth's surface are slowly moving together with unimaginable force. Sometimes the force of collision gradually destroys the edge of one plate; sometimes the impact simply crimps the plates' edges, thereby creating great mountain ranges. When one tectonic plate bends beneath the other, it is called subduction. Most of the time this happens because a dense oceanic plate collides with a lighter continental plate. You can see this along the Pacific coast of South-America. The oceanic plate dips beneath into the Asthenosphere. Through the heat of the Asthenosphere the subducted plate melts. At the surface an ocean trench is created, followed by an arc of islands. In this area also volcanic activities and earthquakes occur.

When continental plates collide, one of the plates splits up into two layers: a lower layer of dense mantle rock and an upper layer of lighter crustal rock. As the mantle layer subducts, the upper layer is peeled off and crumples up against the other plate, thus forming mountain ranges, like the Alps. These are called crumpled mountains.

Students engage in the hands on experiences, model building and focus during the lectures when they have a specific reason to do so.  The experience of creating, writing and editing their own Dynamic Earth Pop-Up book is both motivating and engaging.

Integration:
    Math, art, language arts and technology content can be integrated into this unit.

Math 

• An extension of around geometry of angles, scale
• Use of large numbers and recognize and appropriately use exponential, scientific and calculator notation.

Art

• Instruct students around how to select media, techniques, and processes; analyze what makes them effective or not effective in communicating ideas; and reflect upon the effectiveness of their choices.
• Prompt students to intentionally take advantage of the qualities and characteristics of art media, techniques, and processes to enhance communication of their experiences and ideas.

Language Arts

• Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes
• Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.

 

Day 1  KWL for “Earth Dynamics”

Materials:

• Manila folder for each learner
• Magazines for cut and paste (old National Geographic, travel magazines,     archeology, and Discovery magazines are perfect for this.)
• Lots of colored pencils, crayons, and/or markers
• Chart Paper and color markers
• Glue
• Scissors

There are two activities to be done the first day of this unit.

1. KWL Lesson Part 1  Introduce the topic of Earth Dynamics and let students know that there will be a culminating project.

a.    Each student will need a manila folder with their name, the title of the unit.  Tell them that at the end of the KWL lesson they will be asked to illustrate the front of their folder.

b.    The folders will contain all the important components (work samples) leading up to the culminating project.

2. KWL Lesson Part 2

a.    Students will use terms, ideas, questions generated from their individual and group KWL to create a cover on the folder.  Encourage students to use lots of color, images, and/or maybe create a collage with magazine images.

b.    It is helpful to have the manila folders left in the classroom and not taken home. Throughout the unit you will be prompted to collect some pieces of work and place into the manila folders.  This will serve your students well later on.

The object of this lesson is to empower learners around their pre-knowledge base of plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain building and other forces that shape the surface of the planet earth.  Perhaps more importantly, as you review the individual KWL's and as the whole class KWL proceeds, you will be looking for which topics of the unit may need more or less concept development.  If you notice that there are some misunderstandings of concepts this will also emerge allowing you to address those later in the unit.
 
A useful website to review of the pedagogy and methodology of the KWL Lesson can be found at http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/learning/lr2kwl.htm.  A KWL template is available for download and print.  Because the KWL will be used several times during this unit be sure to save a template.

Have students create a KWL for the big idea “Earth Dynamics”.  This enables the teacher to see if and how learners are making connections between the subtopics.  Some prompts might include:

• What do you already know about how earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain ranges and plate tectonics?
• How are those events or ideas related?
• What do you already know about how the surface of the planet earth changes over time?
• How do you think scientists know about events that happened millions of years ago?

Introduce the unit with a KWL for this unit.

• Start by drawing two vertical lines to create three columns on the paper. Title the first column  KNOW, the second WANT TO KNOW, and the third LEARNED.
• Then ask the students to fill in the first two columns for themselves with what they know and what they need to know about this unit. Use the prompt “Earth’s dynamics” as a focus for the KWL.
• For the second column, ask the students what they want to know about this topic. For example, some may want to know how to make a volcano explode. Write their answers in the second column. The third column will remain blank until the end of the unit. Post the KWL butcher-block paper in the classroom as a reminder for students and complete the learned column on the last day.
• When students finish this individually, develop a KWL as a whole class and write it on butcher-block paper.
  • Make three columns on the paper, the first column titled KNOW, the second WANT TO KNOW, and the third LEARNED.
  • Ask students what they know about Earth’s dynamics, or what shapes the landscape of the Earth: plate tectonics, volcanoes, earthquakes, mountain building.
  • Whatever is said, write it under the KNOW heading.
  • For this section of the lesson, you are the scribe!  Resist the temptation to edit or correct any responses.  This allows for clarification in the learners misconception or misinformation through inquiry and independent investigation.
• Let students know that their individual KWL’s will become a part of their final project.  For that reason it is important that it is filed in a safe and accessible place, their manila folder.

At this point in the lesson, make the art materials and magazines available.   Students will use terms, ideas, questions generated from their individual and group KWL to create a cover on the folder.  Encourage students to use more images than words, lots of color and/or maybe create a collage with magazine images.The folders can be used as a "Ticket Out the Door" (TOD).  To Learn more about theTOD strategy go to http://www.teacherweb.com/mi/centralelementaryschool/mrsbainbridge/ticketoutthedoor.pdf

 

Terms should be introduced and associated concepts developed within each topic and embedded in the subtopics.  Provide students with this list of terms.  Each page of their pop up book should include terms and relationships among the terms. 

abyssal plain

aggregate

Asthenosphere

Batholith

Bedrock

caldera

cast

cinder-cone volcano

clastic

composite volcano

continental drift

core - inner and outer

convection

convergent boundary

crater

crust

deep-sea trench

divergent boundary

epicenter

fault

fault-block mountains

focus

Gondwana

hot spot

lava

lithosphere

magma

magnitude

mantle

mid-ocean ridges

modified Mercalli scale

orogeny 

Pangaea

primary wave

Richter scale

ridge push

rift valley

rock cycle

seafloor spreading

secondary wave

shield volcano

seismic gap

stress

subduction

theory of plate tectonics

tsunami

uplifted mountains

vent

viscosity

Objective: Students will create world map transparencies indicating the location of major volcanic activity, earthquakes, mountain ranges, and tectonic plates. After putting all transparencies on top of one another, students will see a correlation between the locations of the earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain ranges to the location of plate boundaries.  
 

1. Divide the class into 4 groups. Assign each group one of the following topics: earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain ranges, tectonic plates. 
 

2. Give each group an overhead of a blank world map. You may want to use this one: http://www.outline-world-map.com/map-images-original/outline-blank-transparent-world-map-b1b.png
Instruct the group to place dots on the map where their topic has occurred. For example, the volcano group would place dots on each of the Hawaiian islands.
 

3. Provide each group a listing of major locations of their topics.

Provide learners with a clean world map.  Share the following scoring guide criteria.  Make available color pencils, crayons and/or markers. Ask students to complete their individual maps using all resources available to them.

Scoring Guide

Illustrate the different types of plate motions and boundaries, including types of faults, movements, and forces for each

Advanced	Proficient	Developing	Emerging
Creates a map of the Earth with major fault lines illustrated and labeled indicating the name and type of fault	Creates a map of the Earth with major fault lines illustrated and labeled indicating the type of fault for each fault line	Labels the four different types of faults with arrows showing direction of movement	Lists the names of major fault lines on Earth

Place the completed model in student's manila folder.  This work sample should be included in the final pop-up book as an evidence of learning. 

   

Part 1 (20 minutes)  Watch video: "Digging a hole to the center of the Earth" An irresistible account of a child’s imaginary 8,000-mile journey through the earth to discover what’s inside. Facts about the composition of the earth are conveyed painlessly and memorably. The illustrations are bright and fun.

"Find a soft place. Take a shovel and start to dig a hole. So begins your trip through the center of the earth. You will have to dig about 8,000 miles to get to the other side of the world, and you'll need the latest equipment. As you dig, you may find fossils, or diamonds and emeralds, or even stroke oil. There will be problems, too - underground geysers and volcanoes and white-hot heat. But what a wild adventure!"

This video is also a print book.

Part 2 (55 minutes)  Students create a 3-D model of Earth, label layers and characteristics of layers.

Have the following materials, in addition to either a text book or on line information related to Earth layers, available:

1.    scissors, glue, markers, color pencils, crayons, magazines for cut and past

2.    Copy and distribute TAEMB (The Amazing Earth Model Book Easy-to-make Hands-on Model That Teach, Donald M Silver; Patricia Wynne.  New York:  Scholastic Professional Books, 1997) pages 11 – 14

3.     Provide students with the 3-D model scoring guide (located at the end of this section)

OR

Challenge students to create a paper model of Earth that shows its layers.   The following website has many many free templates for this activity.  You will use this site often during this unit so be sure to bookmark it as a favorite. Let's Book It with tech'knowledge'y       http://www.vickiblackwell.com/makingbooks/

4.    Encourage learners to tap into their creative nature as they build and construct the 3-D model.  Some may choose to cut and paste vivid colors from magazine pages to create the layers.  Others may choose color pencils, crayons or markers.

5.    Work with students to add critical information using the scoring guide.  Identify the layers of the Earth.

6.    This work sample could be included in the final pop-up book as an evidence of learning.  Or learners might choose to use this as a starting point for another more comprehensive inside earth model.
Scoring Guide - 3-D Model - Identify the layers of the Earth

Advanced	Proficient	Developing	Emerging
•    Illustrates the layers of the Earth with appropriate labels and units of measurement•    Describes the characteristics of each layer: temperature, thickness, composition, etc.•    Describes how the characteristics may fluctuate throughout the layer	•    Illustrates the layers of the Earth with appropriate labels•    Describes the characteristics of each layer: temperature, thickness, composition,	•    Illustrates the layers of the Earth with appropriate labels•    Describes some characteristics of each layer: temperature, thickness, composition,	Labels the layers of the Earth on a diagram•    Describes an interesting characteristic of each layer

If needed, allow time in another class period to complete the 3-D Earth model project.  It takes about 55 minutes from onset to completion.

*information presented comes from Earth Science published by Glencoe McGraw-Hill

Plate Tectonics

I. Alfred Wegener proposed the theory of continental drift

A. Continental Drift - theory about the continents separating

1. Pangaea - the early land mass consisting of all current continents put together

2. Evidence

a. similar rocks have been found on different continents
b. fossils of similar plants and animals found on different continents (for example: pre-dinosaurs found in Africa and South America)
c. Glacier evidence in Africa, India, Australia and South America

3. Scientists at the time disputed Wegener's theory because he could not explain how the continents separated
 

B. Seafloor Spreading

1. Ocean ridges - separation in the seafloor causing a "gap"

a. Gap fills with magma
b. magma cools and hardens
c. gap reopens and pushes hardened magma to the side creating more seafloor

 

2. Missing link in Wegener's theory: seafloor spreading caused pangaea to separate

3. Analysis of the seafloor shows Earth's polarity has reversed several times throughout history

4. Seafloor closest to ocean ridges is younger than seafloor farther from the ridge
 

II. Theory of Plate Tectonics

A. Earth's crust is broken into slabs called PLATES

 

B. Plate boundaries - areas where plates interact

1. Divergent boundaries - where plates separate

a. Ocean ridges are caused by divergent boundaries between two oceanic plates
b. Rift Valley - divergent boundary on land, may lead to a new ocean basin (ex. Great Rift Valley in eastern Africa)

2. Convergent boundaries - where plates move together

a. Ocean to ocean: one plate will slide under the other, pushing the second plate up. This causes a subduction zone and volcanic islands
b. Ocean to continent: oceanic plate will slide under the continental plate, pushing the continental plate up. This causes a trench in the ocean and a mountain range on land
c. Continent to continent: both plates push together and uplift causing a mountain range, for example the Himalayas

3. Transform boundaries - plates slide horizontally against each other

a. causes shallow earthquakes
b. San Andreas fault in California is the best known transform boundary

C. Causes of Plate Motion: Scientists are not sure, but they have ideas of what causes the motion of the plates

 

1. Idea 1: Mantle convection currents: material near the mantle is warmer than at the surface, which causes it to rise and the cooler material to sink. As the cooler material gets lower, it warms up and rises and the material near the surface (now cooled) sinks, process continues

a. Ridge push - where the mantle rises - convergent boundary
b. Slap pull - where the material sinks - divergent boundary

2. Idea 2: Continental Divergent Boundary: continent acts as an insulating blanket - mantle heats beneath is - warm matter rises, splits the land mass.

Metaphor in Science

Metaphors are comparisons that show how two things that are not alike in most ways are similar in one important way. Metaphors are a way to describe something. Authors use them to make their writing more interesting or entertaining.

Unlike similes that use the words “as” or “like” to make a comparison, metaphors state that something is something else.

Google "metaphor" and you will get a plethora of good sites that can be adapted to a quick lesson for learners new to this literary figure of speech.

A common metaphor for the structure of planet Earth is an egg. The crust, mantle and core can be related to the shell, egg white and yolk. There are many metaphors for all sorts of science concepts. This activity is a challenge for learners to move away from recitation and into deep and meaningful learning.

There are some expectations that must be paid prior to this assignment.

1. Students have been explicitly taught Bloom’s Taxonomy or higher order thinking levels as a way of understanding their own learning and information processing.
2. Students have had some instruction and opportunity to practice metaphor development and usage.
3. Explicitly include elements of a scoring guide if this activity is to be used as an assessment tool.

Rationale:*   This assignment is focused on learner understanding. This is a creative activity that involves design, and higher order thinking and is a synthesis project. Include a brief paragraph of the general concept with a few details of where students can access more information about the concept.

Evidence of Effectiveness:

The value of looking at art or creating art is as a means to cultivate thinking dispositions.  Research in cognition  support that art is uniquely qualified to support commitments to habits of thinking that are not hasty, narrow, fuzzy and sprawling.  Art calls forth personal involvement.  Art draws on various types and levels of cognition and encourages connections with other domains of human experience. David Perkins (1994). The Intelligent Eye:  Learning to Think by Looking at Art.  Harvard Project Graduate School of Education

Task: 

1)   On a piece of 8.5 x 11, oriented in portrait position 2).  Create and illustrate a central metaphor that encapsulates your view of (select any one of the subtopics associated with the Evolution of Earth 3) Create a poem to articulate the metaphor you have selected.

Function:*    This will become the cover sheet, back cover or a page in the student pop up book

Cinquain Poems

The power of this instructional strategy/assessment tool lies in the assimilation of related terms and images which tap into the learners existing schemata.  It requires that the learner make sense of a term or concept within a defined set of expressions which already exist in the learners own experience.  Additionally the poem can express deeper knowledge and be used as an assessment or evidence of understanding. 

An example is a learner who wrote something like…

Pangaea
Drifting Continents
Evidence Fossil Record
Plates Float Mantle Uplifts
200 m.y.a.

There is evidence the learner understands that Pangaea was a super-continent. It began to break apart 200 million years ago, the result of thermal uplifts in the earth’s mantle. The continental plates float and move.  The fossil record provides evidence that continents were once connected.
 

This tool, the Cinquain Poem, can be used in multiple ways:

1.    Pre-reading assignment
2.    Vocabulary assignment
3.    Concept building
4.    Concept or skill assessment

The basic format is as follows:

Title (one word)
Describe Title (two words)
Feeling Emotive Words (three words)
Words of Action Movement (four words)
Synonym (of title one word)

Cinquain
Poetry Form
Need Not Rhyme
Engages Learner in Content
Powerful


Cinquain
Five Lines
Sensory emotive expression
Creates an image sense
Poem

In addition to writing the poem it is helpful to ask students to illustrate the concept and then superimpose the poem onto the illustration.  This is best done by using a scanner and word processing program, if available.  But the good ole’ fashioned way of having the student write the poem, using their best penmanship centered on the page and then illustrating around the hand written poem also works well.  This is particularly effective if the lesson also includes some instruction on labeling or calligraphy or stylized “wordmanship”…somewhat like WordARt but more individually stylized.  Graffiti is a type of stylized penmanship.

*information presented comes from Earth Science published by Glencoe McGraw-Hill
 

 

I. How do Earthquakes happen?

A. Most earthquakes happen when rocks fracture deep within Earth

 

1. When stress exceeds strength of the rocks, a fracture occurs

 

2. Fault: fracture in Earth's crust that occurs when stress is applied too quickly or stress is too great

 

B. Seismic waves

 

1. primary waves: P-waves cause rock particles to move back and forth as the wave passes (occur in the Earth's interior)
 

2. seconday waves: S-waves cause rocks to move at right angles to the direction of the wave (occur in the Earth's interior)
 

3. surface waves: particles move up and down and side to side (occur at the Earth's surface)
 

4. focus: point where earthquake originates, all waves spread out from this point
 

5. epicenter: Earth's surface directly above the focus on the fault line
 

II. Measuring Earthquakes

A. Seismometers amd siesmograms are instruments used to detect and record earthquake activity

 

1. P and S-waves are recorded with these instruments, P-waves always are detected first
 

2. Detection of P and S-waves at sites far from the epicenter of a quake have lead scientists to some information about the core of the Earth

 

 

B. Earthquake Magnitude and Intensity

 

1. Magnitude: the amount of energy released during an earthquake

 

2. Intensity of an earthquake is the amount of damage done to structures

 

C. Locations of Earthquakes

 

1. Most earthquakes occur at tectonic plate boundaries
 

2. A small percent occur far from plate boundaries

A fault or fault line is a place where there is a fracture in rock in the Earth's crust. Earthquakes often begin at a fault line in a fault zone in the Earth's crust. If rock near a fault suddenly begins to move, it creates pressure that causes an earthquake. Clay is used in this activity to make a model of a fault.

Make available for teams of 2 or three students: Three different colors of clay and a butter or table knife (dull edge)

This is a simplistic but accurate demonstration of how earthquakes occur along a fault line.

Step 1: Get three pieces of clay, each in a different color, and pound each piece into a flat rectangle.

Step 2: Stack them on top of one another and press them together. The three pieces of clay represent layers of the Earth's crust.

Step 3: Use a dull knife to cut all the way through the layers, in the middle. Put the two sections of clay together, but don't match them up exactly as they were before you cut them apart. The cut is like a fault in the Earth's crust.

Step 4: Push in on the outside edges of both sections of clay. The clay along the "fault" will buckle and slide. Earthquake!

 

 

I. Magma

A. All volcanoes are fueled by magma

 

1. Magma forms deep within the Earth when temperatures are high enough (800C to 1200C) to melt rock

 

2. Types of magma

Composition	Source Material	Viscosity	Explosiveness
Basaltic Magma	Upper mantle	Low	Least
Andesitic Magma	Oceanic crust and oceanic sediments	Intermediate	Intermediate
Rhyolitic Magma	Continental crust	High	Greatest

3. Viscosity: the internal resistance to flow. The higher the viscosity, the slower the lava flow.
 

II. Volcanoes

A. Anatomy of a volcano

 

1. Lava: magma once it reaches the earth's surface
 

2. Vent: opening in the crust where lava erupts
 

3. Crater: a bowl-shaped depression at the top of a volcano around the vent
 

4. Calderas: A depression much larger than a crater; forms when the top or side of a volcano collapses into the magma chamber
 

B. Types of Volcanoes

 

Volcano type	Shape	Lava Type	Explosiveness	Example
Shield volcano	broad, gently sloping sides, circular base	layers of basaltic lava	Low	Hawaiian Islands
Cinder-cone volcano	steep sides, generally small	basaltic and/or andesitic	greater than shield volcanoes	Izalco volcano in El Salvador
Composite	much larger than cinder-cone volcanoes	andesitic	violently explosive, greatest danger to humans	Mount St. Helens, WA

C. Locations

1. Most volcanoes form at plate boundaries

 

2. Hot spots: unusually  hot regions of Earth's mantle where high temperature plumes of mantle material rise toward the surface

*information presented comes from Earth Science published by Glencoe McGraw-Hill

 

I. Convergent-Boundary Mountains

A. Orogeny: the processes that form all mountain ranges

 

1. Orogeny results in broad, linear regions of deformations known as orogenic belts
 

2. Most notable belts are found at convergent boundaries
 

B. Oceanic-Oceanic Convergence: when two ocean plates collide

 

1. One ocean plate travels below the other plate toward the mantle causing a subduction zone
 

2. The other ocean plate develops volcanic peaks
 

C. Oceanic-Continental Convergence: when an oceanic plate collides with a continental plate

 

1. The oceanic plate descends toward the mantle
 

2. The continental plate is forced beginning orogeny
 

3. Magma is formed during this process as well
 

D. Continental-Continental Convergence: when two continental plates collide

 

1. Himalayas (Earth's tallest mountain range) are formed at this type of convergence
 

2. Neither plate can be subducted into the mantle
 

3. As the two plates push against one another, they both fold and fault creating mountains
 

II. Other Types of Mountains

 

A. Divergent-Boundary mountains: Ocean ridge mountains form along divergent boundaries

 

B. Nonboundary mountains: mountains forming away from plate boundaries

 

1. Uplifted mountains

 

2. Fault-Block mountains

 

3. Volcanic Peaks

 

 

Almost everything a learner needs to know about how to construct a pop-up page in a pop-up book can be found in the following paperback books.  Irvine opens the door and invites us in to explore the mechanics of model building inside the covers of a book or a card. How to Make Pop-Ups  and How to Make Super Pop-Ups, by Joan Irvine.  There is also an on-line sample of a simple pop-up at http://www.makersgallery.com/joanirvine/.

Challenge students to create original paper models.   The following website has many many free templates.  You will use this site often during this unit so be sure to bookmark it as a favorite.

Let's Book It with tech'knowledge'y       http://www.vickiblackwell.com/makingbooks/

 

An excellent ready to use slide show is available at

http://www.uleth.ca/edu/currlab/handouts/popupbooks.html

click on "9 types of toys and movable books." This would be a good introductory piece to the learners.  Also access the reproducible worksheets when you click on "Toy and Movable Books Sample Worksheets."

Another resource is http://www.robertsabuda.com/popmakesimple.asp site for how-to's.

http://www.library.unt.edu/rarebooks/exhibits/popup2/introduction.htm
You are encouraged to visit the above site to get a comprehensive overview of the history of pop-up books.  Really dig around in the site.  Particularly interesting are the menu items on the left side of the screen.  Be warned however, it will be hard to resist moving further and further into this website!

History of Pop-Ups

It is interesting that pop-ups have reemerged in the last 25 years as a children’s book feature.  In it’s former life, the pop-up was used as a teaching tool to demonstrate complex and layered ideas.

The earliest known examples of such interactive mechanisms actually occurred prior to printing. Work containing volvelles or revolving discs, were used to illustrate a complex philosophical search for truth. The circles were cut out and placed one on top of one another as a simple turning of circles.  They illustrated a variety of topics, including natural science, astronomy, mathematics, mysticism, fortune telling, navigation, and medicine.

“Other types of movables, in particular "turn-up" or "lift-the-flap" mechanisms, were in use as early as the fourteenth century. They were especially helpful in books on anatomy, where separate leaves, each featuring a different section of the body, could be hinged together at the top and attached to a page. This technique enabled the viewer to unfold, for instance, multiple depths of a torso, from ribcage to abdomen to spine. One spectacular example of an anatomical movable is Andreas Vesalius' De humani corporis fabrica librorum epitome, printed in Basel in 1543. It features a movable illustration in which the human anatomy is shown in seven detailed superimposed layers.” http://www.library.unt.edu/rarebooks/exhibits/popup2/introduction.htm

http://library.thinkquest.org/J001156/makingbooks/em_popup.htm "Tab pop-up books are easy to make and fabulous to look at.  They look three dimensional because the pictures "pop-up" at you as you open the pages!  You can make single page pop-up books for short subjects or you can lengthen the book by gluing the pages back to back.  The instructions provided are for single page pop-up books."

Now, all that being said... 

Constructing this Pop-Up Book

At this point in the lesson, your students have already constructed several movable part pages for their books:

Plate Tectonics

1. KWL completed
2. Plate Motions and Boundaries Map
3. 3-D model of earth layers
4. Moving Plate Model
5. Plate Puzzle Poster
6. Illustrated Cinquain Poem Plate tectonics

Earthquake

1. KWL completed
2. Family Emergency Plan
3. Original page tsunamis, floods, or changes in natural and man-made structures
4. Illustrated Cinquain Poem Earthquake

Volcanoes

1. KWL Completed
2. Volcano anatomy Inside a Volcano Model
3. Original page composite, shield, cinder or other model
4. Cinquain

Mountain Building

1. KWL Completed
2. The Rock Cycle
3. Mini-book
4. Cinquain

Putting it all together

1. Graphic Organizer
2. Collage
3. Front Cover
4. Table of Contents
5. Dedication Page

Each of those work samples will become pages in their books.

There will be a lot of trial and error in the construction process.  Encourage learners to make a prototype of the their page models before making it in final materials.

Binding the Book

When the pages are ready to be bound into a book follow these directions:

Each student will need 3 pieces of 9" x 12" construction or index paper.

1. Count the number of pages to be included in your book. Divide that number by 2 because those pages will be bound back to back. Sequence your pages in order based on the above list of expected components, plus any other pages you have decided to include.
2. Depending on the number of pages to be bound, create an accordion fold using construction or index paper that is about 1" longer than the pages.  The accordion fold should have the same number of ridges and valleys as there are pages. The ridges of the accordion should be smaller than the outside edge of any mechanism or art work or narrative.
3. Do not use the first and last valleys because this is where the front and back covers will be placed.
4. Once all the pages, front and back covers have been placed, secure the binding with glue and set with something like a clothes pin until the glue sets.  Usually, overnight allows enough time to dry.

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Collage
http://www.creativityportal.com/howto/artscrafts/features/2004/magazine.collage.html
http://www.ehow.com/video_4435635_establish-theme-collage.html
http://www.life123.com/hobbies/scrapbooking/collages/word-collage.shtml

Using the above web sites introduce students to the concept of collage.  Technically, a collage is a combination of photos, paper, fabric, rubber stamps, magazine paper, etc. arranged on a background.  In this case students will be constructing their collages on an 8.5 x 11 paper.  Remind them to leave a 1" margin on the left side so that when they bind the books the binding doesn't interfere with the finished collage.

For this collage project, students will collect images, either realistic or abstract to create a collage with the theme of Earth Dynamics and some of what is embedded in that big idea.  Encourage students to seek sources for their collages from magazines, interesting papers, scraps of fabric, WORDS, printing stamps, stickers, stenciled letters, free hand drawings or quotes, odds and ends of various sorts.

Please complete a collage yourself and use as an example for students.  You will learn a lot about collage as you produce a collage.

I like shapes to be cut out, trimmed, and fit together or overlayed.  A collage should not have any white from the paper showing through from behind the pasted images. 

The theme of the collage is Earth Dynamics. This piece will become the front cover of their book, and should include the book title and author name. The title and author name can be superimposed, in black ink or other, on the collage.