Plates in the REAL WORLD!

Here are the pictures we discussed along with our plate tectonic notes in class today. Google Earth is amazing and gives us a look at what is actually happening and the landforms that are created as the plates move over time!

This is a great picture showing the Pacific plate moving north and subducting (convergent boundary) under the North American plate right along the Aleutian Islands of Alaska

Similar to the Aleutian Islands, in SE Asia there is oceanic crust subducting under oceanic crust.  This boundary creates many earth quakes and volcanoes

Here is an image zoomed out so you can see both above mentioned area all at once.  This is what we call the Ring of Fire.  The Pacific plate is subducting under both the North American plate and the Eurasian plate! 

Along the west coast of South America, we have a similar boundary to the ones above, however this is subduction between an oceanic plate (Nazca) and a continental plate (South American).

Above is a convergent boundary between the Indian plate and the Eurasian plate.  This convergent boudary is between two continental plates, which creates large mountains when the two push against one another.  Thus creating the largest mountain in the world Mt. Everest!

Plate Tectonics Day 3

Today we started to present our plate boundary maps.  Once we have discussed each plate and what is happening around it, we will start to put it all together and see where everything is moving!  So far students have done a nice job getting the information across, it can be a difficult subject to communicate to others!  Looking forward to finishing the presentations up on Monday in class. 

Group presenting on the Pacific plate.

Enjoy your weekend!

Here's how we'll start class today!

I little Earth Science rap!

Layers of the Earth Rap

 Enjoy!

Plate Tectonics Day 2

Today we took all of our data that was collected from the four different expertise groups (volcanoes, earthquakes, geography, and sea floor age) and complied them together on one map for each plate of the world.  The students had to figure out how to incorporate all of the different types of data into one organized map of information.  Tomorrow we will be presenting the information about each plate and digging into what it all means!  Almost done with all this data everyone, hang in there!

Plate Tectonics Day 1

The first day is always the most frustrating, it's hard to figure out how all this seismic, geographic, volcanic and sea floor age data will come together and show anything meaningful! Evidence below:

The data is telling me what??

Tell me when the data is gone!

Once everyone had a handle on how the data was shown on the maps and starting working together with their groups, it went much better.  The next couple of days will be cool to see students make the connections between what landforms and events are happening in the world and why they are happening where they are!  Overall the students did a phenomenal job today and pushed through the really difficult part and made great progress today!  Nice work everyone, looking forward to more of the same tomorrow!  Here are a few more pictures of the work that was done today!

Plate Tectonics Activity

Students will be working on a plate tectonics activity over the next 3-4 days.  Students will be analyzing data from different maps, and using that data to determine what types of plate boundaries there are in the world and why we have certain earth features created in specific spots around the world.  I will be updating the blog as we work through this activity, please stop back to see how things are going!

Happy Snow Day Everyone!

Hope you all enjoy your day off! Just wanted to make sure and remind you all to be looking over your mid-term topic list. Please go through it and make sure you can explain each topic listed, if you are not sure about some use your notes, assignments, labs to help you figure it out. Monday you will have time to work on the mid-term review and Tuesday we will go over all the topics and answer any questions you might still have.

Feel free to post questions on this blog that I can help you out with! I will be checking in as often as I can!

Have a great weekend!

Great Human Body Systems Resource

This website has a ton of great information that we covered in class (plus a ton more).  This would be another great tool to use as a review for the human body systems test!

Human Body Systems

Great Interactive Heart

Hey Students,

Looking for another way to prepare for your Human Body test, here is a link to a great interactive heart online.  You can look at the parts of the heart as well as the way blood flows through!  Happy studying.

Interactive Heart Diagram

Finishing Dissections

Today we completed our frog dissection and will wrap up our discussion on the lab tomorrow at the start of class.  I think the majority of students had a great experience with the dissection and were able to see the body systems we studied up close and personal! 

Tomorrow we will begin the process of reviewing all of the human body unit and prepare for the unit test which will take place on Thursday Jan. 12th. 

Making Connections

Our 8th graders are just about to finish up their Human Body Systems unit of study and what better way to bring it all together than to have a dissection!  I love this activity as it makes the curriculum the students just learned very real and helps make the connections between the body systems.  I see students eyes light up when they have made that connection on a certain system or systems.  The value in this authentic assessment and real world application of the material we learned in class is second to none!  Here is a sampling of the fun that took place today.   

It is amazing to see students discovering, learning, and making connections!  This is what school is all about!

Frog Dissection

Hey everyone, starting tomorrow we will be dissecting frogs to finish off our human body systems unit of study. I will post some pictures of the fun tomorrow and Thursday. I am looking forward to a fun engaging learning experience for the students to bring all our body systems together. Should be a great couple of days!