This lesson is titled "Earthquakes" and is published on ScienceNetLinks.com. It teaches middleschool students about plate tectonics and how they affect our earth's development over time. This is an important and fundamental concept that every middle school student should learn, which is why I chose this lesson to explore. Also this lesson incorporates authentic situations where students are required to collect data on occuring earthquakes and create a map.
This lesson incorporates most of the New Jersey earth system standards under the strand of tectonics. It covers the topics of plate tectonics, lithospheric plates, erosion and deposition, geologic events and the Ring of Fire through both teacher- centered and student-centered strategies. The teacher-centered strategies include lectures on these specific topics and demonstrations on how to collect the data. This lesson is mostly student-centered with their own research on earthquakes and the collection of earthquake citings and map creating. Most of the research uses electronic sources and the internet to complete the data collecting.
Two standards that this lesson does not incorporate is the earth's magnetic field and the layers of Earth. This could be adapted to the lesson by the teacher's explanation of earth's magnetic field and its play on earthquakes and a model of the layers of the earth and where earthquakes take place.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlEPB9e5Uod9dF9WNnhPSFNMSUF4Y1BSZE9zcmdjb1E&usp=sharing
This is a great lesson. I just wonder is there any other technologies that you have learned about in your classes that could be applied to this lesson. I am sure that there are many technologies out there that could some how be incorporated. In any event I did enjoy how you analyzed this lesson plan and did incorporate the technologies that you did.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Sean, this lesson is rather interesting and id like to see more technologies placed into the lesson. As a student I would truly enjoy this in class. Earthquakes are an interesting thing to watch and chat. It may be more fun to use california as an examples just because there land has more tectonic plate shifts.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very cool lesson. I remember in my Earth Science class we made a building out of Popsicle sticks and placed it on a board that mimicked the three different types of shock waves. I really like how this lesson plan is student centered. This allows the students to come to an understanding about the lesson on their own.
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