Lisa M. Snyder

11/14/99

Title:  Exploring Plate Boundaries

 

Introduction:

This activity is designed using a guided inquiry approach.  By following a series of specific steps, students are guided through the process of exploring and investigating why certain geologic features are located at plate boundaries.  The activity incorporates the use of mathematical skills and Internet use and encourages independant learning and cooperative group learning.  By the end of the activity, students should be able to answer the final worksheet questions with minimal help from the teacher.

Target Audience: 

This activity is designed for middle school students.  It could be used either as an introductory activity to plate tectonics or as a follow up/ reinforcement activity.

 

Wyoming State Content Standards Addressed: 

This activity will address the portion of the benchmarks below that are highlighted in bold face print. 

Grade 8 Basic Concepts and Knowledge Benchmark #’s 11 and 12:

Students explain the structure of the earth system, including layers of the earth and its atmosphere, plate tectonics, and landforms resulting from constructive and destructive forces such as the rock and water cycles.

Students interpret earth’s history, including: describing major events in the earth’s geologic history and the underlying change process, examining the effects of occasional catastrophic events, and analyzing fossil evidence of changes in life and environments.

Grade 8 Unifying Concepts and Processes Benchmark # 1:

Students develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models using scientific evidence.

Grade 8 Science as Inquiry Benchmark # 3:

Students think critically and logically to demonstrate the relationship between evidence and explanation.

 

Activity:

In this activity middle school students will determine the latitude and longitude of various locations along plate boundaries around the world.  They will then use the Internet to collect information on the movement of the major tectonic plates at these specific boundary locations.  Mathematical skills of scale conversion and angle measurement will be used to represent the plates’ speed and direction of motion on maps.  Finally, students will use this information and information gathered from additional sources to learn about how and why certain geologic features are associated with specific types of plate boundaries.

Students will need a map showing the major tectonic plates and features associated with plate boundaries.  The map should have latitude and longitude lines marked and the following locations labeled:

A, A’ -  Boundary of Pacific and North American Plate at the Aleutian Trench.

B, B’ - Boundary of the Pacific and North American Plate at the San Andreas Fault

C, C’ - Boundary of the Nazca Plate and the South American Plate at the Peru-Chili Trench and Andes Mountains.

D, D’ -  Boundary of the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate at the Mid Ocean Ridge

E, E’ -  Boundary of the Indoaustralian Plate and the Eurasian Plate at the Himalayan Mountains

F, F’ -   Boundary of the Indoaustralian Plate and the Eurasian Plate at the Java Trench

 

Students will use the above mentioned map and the Exploring Plate Boundary Worksheets*  below, to explore the relationship between plate movement and various geologic features associated with various plate boundaries.

 

*  Please note:  the Worksheets below are only an example of this activity.  Parts B-F are currently being developed.

 

General Discussion of Activity

I have done an activity similar to this with my students in past years, however  I have used the activity as a final reinforcement activity rather than an introductory activity.  Students did not use the plate motion calculator, rather I would have students deduce the direction of plate movement by the geologic features that were present at the plate boundaries after they were given a lecture on convergent, divergent and transform boundaries.

This activity reverses that process.  Students plot the speed and direction of plate movement and then do research to try to determine WHY the specific plate movements would produce the geologic formations present at the boundaries.  It is my general feeling that when students have to actually think and figure something out for themselves they tend to remember it better than if a teacher just tells them the reason.

Younger age middle school students (6 or 7th grade) might have initial difficulty with the angle measurement and scale conversion for the vector arrows.  In order to reduce the level of anxiety and frustration on the part of students the teacher should review this process with the students before having them attempt it on their own.

 

*  Please note:  the Worksheets that follow are only an example of this activity .  Parts B-F are currently being developed.

 

Exploring Plate Boundaries                          Name  _________________

Student Worksheet                            Period ____ Date ________

 

Directions:  Obtain the plate tectonic map that you have just completed and perform the following activities:

 

1.  For each part (A-F) do questions 1-8 only.   Skip the rest of the questions in each part until later.

 

2.  When you have completed questions 1-8 for all parts (A-F) then have your answers checked by your teacher.

        

3.  Once you have received your teacher’s initials on the last page of this activity          you may sign onto the web site below and complete question 9 on Parts A-F.

        

                  http://manbow.ori.u-tokyo.ac.jp/tamaki-html/hs2_nuvel1.html

 

4.  When you have completed question 9 for all parts (A-F), sign off the computer, pick up a circular protractor and return to your seat.

        

5.  Using your circular protractor and the speed and direction information you obtained from the web, draw arrows on your map at each location to show the direction the plate is moving.  The speed of the plate should be indicated by different arrows of different length using a scale of 1 cm/year actual movement = 1 mm arrow on your map.  For example, you would draw a 1 mm long arrow on your map if the plate is moving 1 cm/year and you would draw a 5 mm long arrow on your map if the plate is moving at a speed of 5 cm/year.

 

Part A.

1.  Locate the letter A on your map.  

 

2.  What plate is this location on?  ___(Pacific Plate)___

 

3.  What is the latitude and longitude at this location? 

 

         Latitude:  __(50N)__

         Longitude:  __(165W)____

 

4.  Locate the letter A’ on your map just north of the letter A. 

 

5.  What plate is this location on?  ___(North American)___

 

6.  What is the latitude and longitude at this location? 

 

         Latitude:  __(55N)__

         Longitude:  __(165W)____

 

7.  What main geologic feature do you see at the boundary between these two plates?  ___(Aleutian Trench)  ___

 

8.  For the computer program we are about to use we need to modify the latitude and longitude numbers so the computer will accept them.  For all latitudes north of the equator we will use positive numbers and for all latitudes south of the equator we will use negative numbers.  For all longitudes east of 0 degrees we will use positive numbers and for all longitudes west of 0 degrees we will use negative numbers.  Based on this information, rewrite the latitudes and longitudes above so that the computer program will know what the location to which you are referring.

 

         Location A:  Latitude:  __(50)__           Longitude:  __(-165)____  Plate  ___(Pacific)___

         Location A’:  Latitude:  __(55)__           Longitude:  __(-165)____ Plate  ____(N. American)__

 

9.  Using the Absolute Plate Motion calculator at the web site listed in the directions above, determine the direction and speed of the plates at the locations above and record the information below:

 

         Location A:  Direction _________   Speed  __________     Plate  ___(Pacific)___

         Location A’:  Direction _________   Speed  __________     Plate  ___(N. American)___

        

Now go back and do steps 4 and 5 in the directions above. 

 

 

Question Sheet for                             Name __________________

Exploring Plate Boundaries Activity       Per ____ Date ___________                      

Directions:  Answer the following questions about locations A-F on your plate tectonic map. You may use your textbook, notes, and/or the following web sites to help you answer the questions.  You are encouraged to discuss and debate answers with your classmates.  Make sure you can back up your ideas with specific information about plate boundaries.

 

http://www.hartwick.edu/geology/work/VFT-so-far/orogeny/converge.html

http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/understanding.html

http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~soper/Earth/tectonics.html

 

Part A - The Aleutian Trench

 

1.  What type of boundary is this?  ___(Convergent)____

 

2.  This type of boundary is also called a _(Subduction)_ zone.

 

3.  What other geologic/ geographic feature might you expect to see here? (Volcanoes/Earthquakes)

        

         Why?  (subducting plate can stick, build up pressure and release causing earthquakes - subducting plate can melt, hot magma can burn up through crust causing volcanoes)

 

4.  The Aleutian Islands are a long string of islands off the southwest tip of Alaska.  They follow along the plate boundary.  Using your new knowledge of plate tectonics, explain how they probably formed.  (volcanoes forming along the plate boundary, sea level is high enough to cover the base of them resulting in islands)