Last week we looked at the world's 15 major plates, saw the types of movement along their boundaries, and you discovered how the earth can change because of this movement. This week we will recap on these ideas by finishing up the World Plates Map we worked on last week. Then you will move on to investigating a real-life example of a plate boundary somewhere in the world. While investigating, you will use the plate tectonics simulation (by PhET) to recreate what goes on at your boundary as part of a video creation project using WeVideo. Extra help is available after school Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday this week. Stay curious and keep looking for answers!
Last week we looked at how Harry Hess figured out that the seafloor spreads out and pushes the continents (and the plates they sit on) across the world proving to scientists that Continental Drift actually does happen. This week, we'll be taking these ideas to construct your own world map. This map will include the names of the world's plates, the different ages of the crust, and will show what happens along the edges of each plate. Plates tear apart, crash into each other, and slowly grind past one another - and in the process some incredible things happen. Extra help will be available Tuesday, Thursday and Friday this week. Stay curious and keep looking for answers!
This week we'll be checking out Sea-Floor Spreading and Plate Tectonics (finally!). Alfred Wegener's theory of Continental Drift was mostly ignored by scientists during his lifetime, but slowly evidence that supported his theory was uncovered. The first clue was found while naval ships mapped the ocean floor after World War I. Not only did they discover that the ocean floor was NOT flat, but they found that there was a mountain chain that extended thousands of miles through many of the world's oceans. Today scientists call this mountain range the Mid-Ocean Ridge. It's discovery led to our modern understanding of how the ocean floor grows in some places and shrinks in others. Without this discovery, we would not understand that our planet's crust is cut up into pieces or "plates". Extra help is available after school Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday this week. Stay curious and keep looking for answers! With Columbus Day off, we've got a short week ahead, but still some great topics we'll be hitting in science class. To start, we'll continue looking into convection currents as they happen in the mantle and other ways that heat is transferred from one object to another. Then we'll be digging into Alfred Wegener's theory of Continental Drift - the first step in developing the modern theory of Plate Tectonics. Progress reports will soon be upon us! The last chance to hand in any missing work before progress reports is this week. Make sure to check in with Mr. Bowles if you have any questions or concerns. After school help is Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday this week. Stay curious and keep looking for answers!
This week we will be finishing up with layers of Earth and be continuing on to convection currents. To start off, we will do a review of the layers of Earth to prepare for the quiz on Tuesday. We will then be checking out how convection currents carry the intense heat from Earth's core up and out through the mantle. You will see how these currents help move the land that sits above them in the crust (and the lithosphere). Layers of Earth Digital Poster is due Wednesday, but there is no more in class time to work on it. If you need any extra help with the poster or the graphing assignment due last week, Mr. Bowles is available after school everyday this week. Stay curious and keep looking for answers!
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The Weekly UpdateThese posts are updates of weekly topics, events, and experiments. The most recent posts are at the top. Archives
March 2020
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