This is an demonstration/lab I have been doing with my kids since I taught 6th grade the very first time. I really want to give credit to where the idea came from, but I have spent a long time looking for the original and even the lab I used a few years ago, and couldn't find either. My best guess is that it is from the AIMS program, but when I tired to look it up there, I couldn't find it either. To make a long story short, I rewrote the worksheets for the lab this year, and did it with my homeschoolers.
This is the first time I have ever done this lab with less than 20 kids at the same time, so it was a much different process. If you are planning on doing it with a whole class, you may want to pick 3 of the pages instead of doing all 5.
To get started each kid is going to need:
Two chewy chocolate chip cookies
Two original chocolate chip cookies
Two graham crackers
One piece of parchment or wax paper
A large scoop of frosting
A plastic knife or popsicle stick
For this lab I decided to make a worksheet that I gave out to have the kids discuss what they thought each part was going to stand for. Then after they had their ideas, we came together and wrote down what each part would be.
The soft cookie is representing the less dense continental crust, the hard cookie is representing the more dense continental crust, the graham cracker is representing the oceanic crust, and the frosting is representing the magma.
Next, we set out our materials, and of course went over lab expectations. Everyone has their own sent of lab expectations, but for this lab I make sure that I include:
You may not eat any of the materials until the end when I tell you you may
be carful with your materials, you will not get more
After we got everyone set, they followed the procedures on the worksheets to create the different types of plate boundaries.
Divergent Plate Boundary:
1. Smooth out the frosting/magma into a thick flat layer.
2. Place the graham crackers onto the frosting touching each other along one edge.
3. Slowly pull the graham crackers apart putting a little downward pressure as you move
them apart.
Convergent Plate Boundaries:
1. Smooth out the frosting/magma into a thick flat layer.
2. Place the soft cookie and the hard cookie onto the frosting touching each other along one edge.
3. Slowly push the cookies together putting a little downward pressure on the hard cookie
as you move them apart.
Convergent boundary with continental crust and oceanic crust
Transform Plate Boundary:
1. Smooth out the frosting/magma into a thick flat layer.
2. Place the graham crackers onto the frosting touching each other along one edge.
3. Slowly pull the graham crackers apart putting a little downward pressure as you move
them apart.
The last page I added was for them to create their own plate boundary. The worksheet has them tell what they used, what that represents, and what kind of boundary they formed.
What kind of labs do you use for plate tectonics? I'm always on the look out for great labs!
Comments