Adjusting Activities

What do I want my students to understand from this activity?

This activity gets at how land formations can be used to determine the direction of plate movement. The analysis questions were very low level thinking and I wanted them to really think and understand how plate motion and land formations relate.

The questions now require them to explain how they know and came up with their answers. I also took out the leading questions and put in others that will determine if they really do understand the different types of boundaries.

How will this activity tie into the other subjects we are learning?

I was given this great activity for understanding the idea of Isostasy by another teacher. I loved the idea and principle as it helps explain why in Utah we have earthquakes when we are not along a plate boundary, but it wasn't tying into my class well.

They had collected data and I wanted them do to something with that data, so I added a graphing practice. I wanted them to be able to apply this to what we have learned so I asked them to apply this to something they see on a regular basis (floating ice), apply to stuff we have been learning in class (Collision Zone), and then make predictions (Erosion of a mountain).

What type of activity do I want this to be?

Convection box demonstration is a classic that shows gas movement with changes in temperature. It is good demo, but I wanted to put this into my students hands and make it more of an exploratory lesson.

First I had to get enough boxes. They are a bit pricey and I wanted enough for several groups to be able to do this at the same time. I made some out of cardboard, plastic wrap, and florescent light covers from the hardware store (I made ten boxes for about $7 total, picture in the lesson link, used the same boxes for 7 years now).

By the time we do this, we have discussed convection in both the mantle and in water. The assignment is trying to get them to see the same pattern and use what they know to explain something new.

How will students show what they learned?

At first glance this assignment looks to be mainly focused on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram and star life cycle. It actually is more of a graphing exercise, both creating and interpreting.

I wanted my students to show what they learned through making and interpreting a graph. Making their graph, they needed a bit of guidance on this one as the axis start large at the origin and decrease as you move away. I made analysis questions that require them to look for trends, compare with something they know, understand what the graph is showing and how to read it, and making predictions about where other stellar objects might fit into what they have created.

The reference to "Far or Near" stars seemed to confuse the students and they kept assuming that their graph also showed the position of stars in space. I added in star color to the data to be able to tie brightness and temperature together better.