The Earth's Changing Crust

Introduction

This webquest will give students a deeper understanding of how the Earth's crust is constantly changing.

Task

The students will be completing daily activities that will further enhance understanding of earthquakes and volcanoes.

Process

Day One:

Watch the following video about Earthquakes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJpIU1rSOFY

After watching this video, you will use your science journal to record the answers to the following questions.

1. What are the types of faults that were discussed in the video?

2. Draw pictures of what these faults look like.

3. What instrument is used to record the intensity of earthquakes?

4. What else would you like to learn about Earthquakes?

5. Do you have any questions after watching the video?

Day Two:

Watch the following video about the Structure of the Earth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXiVGEEPQ6c

After watching the video, draw a model of the Earth in your Science journal and label the following items. Use your crayons to make your illustrations colorful.

a. crust

b. mantle

c. core

d. inner core

After drawing the Earth's layers, use clay or playdough to create a small model of the layers of the Earth.

Day Three:

Watch this video on Volcanoes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAmqsMQG3RM

After watching this video, you will work with a partner to write a poem about Volcanoes. Make sure to include words like magma, lava, volcano and more words from the video. Draw a picture to illustrate your poem. The poem needs to have at least four lines.

Day Four:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aOd4cc9Mww

This is going to be a fun activity. We will see for ourselves how volcanoes erupt. We will be doing this activity in our table groups. Everyone will need to work together and help each other. After completing the activity with the materials provided, we will journal about what we observed.

Day Five:

Today we will be working in partner groups to create a PowerPoint about Earthquakes and Volcanoes. The PowerPoint will include the information from your journals. This includes the layers of the Earth, the poem about volcanoes, information and illustrations about faults and earthquakes, and any other information that you feel is important. There will be at least three slides showing your information. Make sure you include a title slide with both of your names as creators. When you are done, save your PowerPoint to the class drive and print off your slides to turn it to me.

Evaluation

Evaluation will be done in several ways. The science journals will be checked as students complete the activity. The students will receive a grade of 1-3

1 - no understanding of the material is evident

2 - student shows little understanding of material

3 - student shows total understanding of material and can explain what they know

After student completes the PowerPoint, they will be graded on how well they met the requirements.

1- met none of the requirements and shows no understanding of project

2- met less than half of the requirements and show understanding of project

3- met all requirements and shows total understanding of project

Conclusion

At the conclusion of these activities, the students will have gained a deeper understanding of the Earth's changing crust and be able to explain how earthquakes and volcanoes cause changes to the Earth's crust.