Inquiry

Standard: ESS1.C, ESS2.B

"Rock strata and the fossil record can be used as evidence to organize the relative occurrence of major historical events in Earth's history" (NGSS Lead States, 2013).

Using Milky Way candy bars, students completed an inquiry lab to model the action and results of different types of fault boundaries. Some of the student explanations are shown below. This inquiry was completed after reading about and completing interactive notebook foldable activities related to the different plate boundaries so that students had a foundation of knowledge to then apply the concepts to the lab. There are two schools of thought in that students should learn the background, foundation knowledge prior to completing the inquiry activities, and the second being that students should experience the concepts prior to having the labels applied. In most cases in my classes, I tend to do the inquiry first, then add the labels. I feel that it is often difficult to explain the challenging topics and encourage deeper thinking when they haven't had an opportunity to wrestle with the topics first. However, in this particular unit, we worked on some foundational knowledge of the Grand Canyon formation and the concept of plate tectonics before they completed the inquiry lab to physically demonstrate the three main types of plate boundaries. Upon completion of the inquiry, students were given self-directed research time to begin to make comparisons to the plate tectonic activity on Earth with that of Mars.