Debrief+PT+page

This page will help with our debrief as we discuss the Plate Tectonics exercise we'll do on Day One.

Day One

To start our training off, we are going to place everyone in the position of some sixth graders and walk through a sample lesson with you. This "sample" lesson we are going to walk you through will contain some research that students undertake, some use of technology to support it, and a chance for students to work together and consider how the natural world impacts their lives. While parts of the lesson may seem a little "contrived" to an adult audience, consider how your students, who do not have the same knowledge set, would undertake the tasks that are asked of you here. While neither of us are science teachers, the key here is to see how the learning can be supported with technology and to set forth an example from which we can all work from as you create your own lessons and units that integrate technology into your curriculum.

Introduction: In January of 2010, the country of Haiti was struck by a Magnitude earthquake. Devastating results were seen to a country with many social and economic issues. Buildings collapsed, services were destroyed for many months, sometimes permanently, and there was a tremendous loss of life. What natural forces are in play when these tragedies strike? What do we understand about the Earth and how can our understandings of the Earth's structure help to lessen the tragic consequences that can be experienced when these natural incidents take place?

The Earth is an ever-changing entity. Though geologic time moves very slowly, there are continual forces at work within the Earth's surface and those continual subtle forces can produce quite dramatic and violent episodes on the surface. Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Undersea surface activity, Tsunami's, all of these events are caused by these slow moving forces that work within the crust of the Earth.

Here is a image of Earth that represents the layers that make up the Earth:

For our purposes, we are going to be considering the Crust and Upper Mantle or the Lithosphere. This is the layer of the Earth that concerns us within our lesson today.

Our Main Standard that we are focusing on today is: S6.ESS1 The learner will be able to describe the theory of plate tectonics + evidence to support the theory

Our Essential Questions for our work today (and perhaps over a period of days or even a week) are:


 * How does man predict incidences of Earth's crust changing?
 * How can man predict these incidences to prevent loss of life and catastrophic damage to populated areas?
 * How much of what man knows is theory and how much is law?

Understandings:
 * 1) The earth did not always look as it does
 * 2) There are a variety of forces that act on the earth to change it.
 * 3) By understanding the structure of the earth/geology, we can predict things like earthquakes