Modeling Tectonic Plate Movement (or how sugary can it get?)

This week I was given the assignment of modeling an Earth movement with my students. Since I don't have a classroom right now I borrowed my friend's two sons and tossed in one of my own. They were a little reluctant to 'work' on a weekend but a little bribery and the promise of sugary snacks did the trick.


I decided to do an activity with tectonic plate movement. In the process, I learned a lot myself as to the specifics of what happens under the Earth, where different plates converge and how they shift. I had to do a lot of reading and certainly a LOT of writing for the portfolio write up of this inquiry. As usual, a week and a half of writing, editing, contemplating and planning took up the majority of my time. What looked like a simple lesson plan was actually a masterpiece (in my mind!) in the making. 


First, I had the boys tell what they knew on a sheet of paper, which they passed to the boy on the right until all 3 boys added their comments. This gave me an idea of what they knew and to what depth. Sean is older than Keegan, who wrote the second comment (*is struck with awe*). Keegan is a little self conscious of how much his brother knows and he does not, hence the comment. The third student, Chris, added a simple comment (convection currents) which is an important part of tectonic plate movement that Sean did not originally mention. 

This next paper was started by Keegan, who had nominal knowledge of tectonic plate movements. That was fine with me, and gave me an idea of what depth of knowledge  I would need to  teach him new concepts.

The next step was my engagement activity. (If I were to do this in a standard classroom, I would do this on one day and the next day I would have my students do the main inquiry with frosting and graham crackers). I had the boys take Snickers bars, crack the candy shell and manipulate the candy in different ways, modeling basic plate movements. They especially liked the divergent movement and made little mountains last out of their candy bars, which when done they proceeded to eat. 

After I had the boys watch a short video from National Geographic on tectonic plate movement along with a discussion, the boys were ready to use models to create plate shifts on their own. They modeled continental-oceanic collision, transform plate boundaries, divergent plate boundaries and continent to continent plate boundaries using vanilla frosting for the asthenosphere, chocolate frosting for the lithosphere, fruit leather for oceanic plates and graham crackers for continental plates. I let Keegan refer to  the sheets showing the different types of tectonic plate movements while I talked all of the boys through the task. 

Here's an example of an oceanic rift from a divergent plate boundary. The asthenosphere is almost showing under the thin layer of lithosphere:  

Here's an example of Continent to Continent collision. The boys realized that they were creating a small 'mountain range' without my prompting. 

To wrap up the lesson, I had the boys write a summary. I thought Sean did an outstanding job, so I will share his example:

If I were going to do this lesson over again, I would have done the candy bar inquiry on one day and the graham cracker/frosting tectonic plate modeling the next day. I think the boys were a bit overwhelmed by the end, then again they had had an awful lot of sugar in one sitting. 

: 

Natural Disasters and Students

Here in Florida, our most prevalent (and notorious) form of natural disasters is the hurricane. We have not had one in several years but as you know they can happen spontaneously. Hurricane season is fairly long; from May 15^th to November 30^th yearly.  One year (2004) four hurricanes swept through central Florida, creating massive devastation that still leaves scars on the countryside.  Hurricane Katrina in nearby Louisiana, with winds striking the area at over 125 mph, created the worst disaster in the country by hurricane since 1928.

It is one of our state standards to teach preparedness yearly. SC.5.E.7.7: Design a family preparedness plan for natural disasters and identify the reasons for having such a plan.

Some of my students remember the hurricanes of 2004, while others (like me) have moved to Florida after 2004. I always teach preparedness as part of my lessons on weather, starting with a discussion about their experiences. We then brainstorm a list of items a family will need as well as things that they will need to do to get ready. Most of the time they don’t think of odd things like putting your patio furniture in your pool, and filling the bathtubs with water for the family to use.

I then show the kids short videos as well as have them check out the FEMA website for preparedness: http://www.fema.gov/hazard/hurricane/index.shtm. After that, the students make brochures which are sent home to be shared with their families, who sign and return them to me.

The Red Cross is a natural for helping others out. In the past, my students have proposed having a bake sale, washing cars and selling handmade crafts to raise funds for those in need. Unfortunately we were not able to do so due to school protocol. I did encourage my students to donate from home, and helped out by matching funds for the donations. 

Science Journal Blog: 21st-Century Topics and Tools

Awesome websites for kids – Physics version

I think the most difficult part of this week’s assignment was in getting myself to stop playing with these websites and start writing about them instead.  I used many of these websites with my classroom this week as part of a review for our state tests. My students were fascinated and deeply involved when checking out these websites, it was all I could do to get them off their computers and out the door for lunch. 

This website had to have been my favorite. The graphics were excellent- ForgeFX simulations paired with the textbook publisher Prentice Hall to create over 100 simulation based learning applications, this is just a sampling. Student’s computers have to be able to download Adobe flash. In my class, some of my student’s computers were able to and some not, which created some frustration for my class.

I have used the cell structure sim as well as the solar system sim with my class via my Smart Board, although my student’s favorite was the design and test simulator.

http://www.forgefx.com/casestudies/prenticehall/

The next site is called the Strange Matter Exhibit. It’s all about materials science, introducing the field to students, with a link to videos with scientists that work with materials along with some great interactive activities like Zoom!- where kids examine the structure of materials, Materials Smackdown, where kids learn about the properties of materials, The Transformer where kids learn about processing materials and lastly, the Change The World Challenge, where kids explore the performance of materials.

http://www.strangematterexhibit.com/whatis.html

Then there’s the yuckiest site on the internet- http://yucky.discovery.com/flash/ this website was created for Discovery Kids. There’s a page for science fun and games with well thought out explanations for our future doctors and scientists; subjects like Gross and Cool Body, Roach World and Worm World are a blast to investigate.

Science Journal Blog: 21st-Century Topics and Tools

Awesome websites for kids – Physics version

I think the most difficult part of this week’s assignment was in getting myself to stop playing with these websites and start writing about them instead.  I used many of these websites with my classroom this week as part of a review for our state tests. My students were fascinated and deeply involved when checking out these websites, it was all I could do to get them off their computers and out the door for lunch. 

This website had to have been my favorite. The graphics were excellent- ForgeFX simulations paired with the textbook publisher Prentice Hall to create over 100 simulation based learning applications, this is just a sampling. Student’s computers have to be able to download Adobe flash. In my class, some of my student’s computers were able to and some not, which created some frustration for my class.

I have used the cell structure sim as well as the solar system sim with my class via my Smart Board, although my student’s favorite was the design and test simulator.

http://www.forgefx.com/casestudies/prenticehall/

The next site is called the Strange Matter Exhibit. It’s all about materials science, introducing the field to students, with a link to videos with scientists that work with materials along with some great interactive activities like Zoom!- where kids examine the structure of materials, Materials Smackdown, where kids learn about the properties of materials, The Transformer where kids learn about processing materials and lastly, the Change The World Challenge, where kids explore the performance of materials.

http://www.strangematterexhibit.com/whatis.html

Then there’s the yuckiest site on the internet- http://yucky.discovery.com/flash/ this website was created for Discovery Kids. There’s a page for science fun and games with well thought out explanations for our future doctors and scientists; subjects like Gross and Cool Body, Roach World and Worm World are a blast to investigate.

Exploring Heat Transfer

This week's inquiry experiment was fairly simple on paper; fill four identical mugs, pour some hot water into them and cover each with a different insulator found around the house. Leave the covered mugs on the counter for 30 minutes and then measure the temperature change with the thermometer from our science kits.

There was no stipulation as to how hot the water needed to be so I put each mug in the microwave for 2 minutes each, then covered them and left them out. Half an hour later I attempted to measure the temperature and discovered that my little thermometer could only reach 50 degrees Celsius. Sooo....I had to toss that experiment. Unmeasurable= Invalid.

Next, there was a lively debate between my fiance, my fiance's son who is an AP student in science and myself. We went back and forth on whether I should microwave the water or use hot tap water, if I should do all the mugs at once or one at a time and what insulators I should use. That's typical for my house, being surrounded by smart people is lively if not informative.


I decided to do it my way. I usually do. I heated tap water to its hottest, measured one cup of water, put it in the mugs and topped them. I came back half an hour later and checked the temperature. Strange, how on earth could the plastic baggie be the best insulator? Something had to be wrong, I had also used a 1" piece of Styrofoam, a piece of foil and a wash cloth as my insulators. Surely the washcloth or the baggie had to be poor insulators but no, it didn't work that way at all.


So I sighed, and did the experiment once more. It sounded so simple on paper!


This time when I measured the results, the water for  the Styrofoam, the baggie and the wash cloth all measured in at 36 degrees Celsius. What was up with the Styrofoam? It ended up that the foil won out with a temperature of 37 degrees Celsius.


I decided to leave my experiment at that. Maybe foil as an insulator was something I could look into later on in my free time. It also occurred to me as I was pondering the results that this experiment had no control and to get truly valid results, I would have included a control.


My conclusion: I wouldn't have my students do an experiment like this having tried it on my own with three widely different results. If I was instructed to have my students do it despite my objections, I would give more specifics; give a starting temperature for the water, and to make sure they used a control.


And now for a question from my professor:
What, specifically, would you like students to learn from this experiment?

To answer that question, I pulled up the Sunshine State Standards for Fifth Grade-

The Nature of Science
Standard 1:
The student uses the scientific processes and habits of
mind to solve problems. (SC.H.1.2)

Standard 2:
The student understands that most natural events occur
in comprehensible, consistent patterns. (SC.H.2.2)

6. knows ways that heat can move from one object
to another.

Did you achieve this goal when you engaged in the experiment?

To be honest, I did not. The experiment shows that insulators work to contain some heat, but does not show where the heat went nor how it escaped the coffee mug. 

LOL - Physics

How do different surfaces affect the momentum of marbles?

My assignment for this week was to select a topic and create a guided inquiry experiment to suit the topic. I decided that this would be fairly simple; chose a marble, get a ramp, chose a height for the ramp and find a measuring tape. I next decided to try the marble roll on carpet, tile floor, concrete and sand. (Living in Florida we have Lots of sand). 

First trial, I sent the marble down the ramp. Our cat was watching in rapt attention and pounced on the ball as soon as it hit the carpet. As we all know this introduced a new variable (add cat?) and we can only have one variable in our experiment. So I put cat in the bathroom and finished up with the carpet trial.

Second trial, I sent the marble down the ramp to see how it did on my tile floor. It hit my front door and bounced back. I tried twice just to make sure.  I had visions of my students running all over the classroom, leaping over desks and hollering about catching marbles so I decided to skip the trial on tile. 

Third trial I went outside with my little ramp, box, measuring tape and marble. I’m certain by now that my neighbors wonder about me, with my having checked out 14 little solar cars previously on the sidewalk in front of my house (I had to make sure they were all working, of course). I’ve noticed that my neighbors tend to veer wide of the sidewalk when I’m out doing my experiments. 

Fourth trial was on the sand across the street, now my neighbors were avoiding me completely.

Now my trials were done and I went in to write up my paper. Here are some questions from my professor with replies:

How could you make this experiment more fun, interesting, or engaging for your students? Actually any time they get to play with marbles is good with them. Fifth grade students believe they are the ‘big kids’ but they still like to play. One thing I would do is to put them in groups of three, with a leader, equipment manager and a secretary. They work better with assigned roles rather than every man for himself.

How might you design this experiment so that it is relevant to students’ lives? I would do this with a class discussion about friction and momentum on highways, why it is important to have some friction and what would happen if there were very little. How would it affect the momentum of cars? 

What specifically would you like students to learn from this experiment? I want them to learn that different surfaces affect the momentum of things that come in contact with them. Some surfaces hasten momentum and others slow it down. Essentially.  Did you achieve this goal? I don’t know as I haven’t done this with my students. I imagine that they would understand it, especially if I keep the focus on the topic and give all students a way to connect to the experiment.