Plate Tectonics

I am creating this webquest for my teaching and assessment of science class at Texas A&M university in San Antonio Texas. I chose plate tectonics because of the number of earthquakes that have occured this year and because the 8th grade students that I am currently observing will be entering the plate tectonic lesson once we return from spring break.

The students will need to have a basic understanding of the plate tectonic vocabulary before beginning this particular webquest. They may need one day of note taking before entering this webquest. The students will also use some basic reaseach skills and will hopefully enhance their writing skills with this activity.

Accomodations can be make for special needs students where the students are asked about some of the items they learned and the teacher can write the newspaper article with the student. For the honors and AP students they can create a complete newspaper with geologists classified ads and earthquake sports sections, or even reduced home sales in earthquake areas, or inexpensive travel destinations.

NSES for grades 5-8 Earth and Space Sciences
Content Standard D - Structure of earth system
As a result of their activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop understanding of
-Strucutre of the Earth system

TEKS objective 5
(7.14, 8.14) The students knows that natural events and human activity can alter Earth systems. The student is expected to
A) Describe and predict the impact of different catastrophic events on the Earth (7.14)

The students should be able to write a scientific based newspaper article with the research materials provided in this webquest with 80% accuracy.

This lesson can take between 2-5 days depending on the learning level of the students involved. The students will need access to computers that have Java and shockwave installed in order to run the activities. You may also allow the students to use their science notebooks, journals or notes to create their news paper article.

There are some ways to enhance the webquest as you are watching the students proceed through each activity.
Engagement: Set the stage and make them feel like reporters, give them name badges they can wear, and remind them that they work for a good newspaper not a newspaper that makes things up. Show them some newspaper articles about natiural events.
Exploration: Have the students take a few minutes reviewing what they have seen in the templates against the real newspaper articles. Walk around as they are watching the video and completing the activities and ask them questions, encourage them to write information down based on answers to the questions, such as "If one of the Earth's tectonic plates move, what do you think happens to the other plates?"
Explanation: As they write provide them with suggestions and encourage them when they are on the right path. Remind them to use scientifc terms.
Elaboration: As they complete the vocabulary activity let them know they can do it several times and time one another and race to see who can answer the questions fastest.
Evaluation: During the quiz they can work as a team on the quiz, or they could quiz one another.
Having the students complete this in the computer lab would be the best scenario, however if that is not available you can run through the webquest and project it on your screen and still have the students work in groups and simply follow along.

The rubric focuses mainly on the written aspect of te newspaper article during the courseof the process I would encourage the students for showing good skills during group work. I would also recommend observing them using the computer and ensure they are visiting the sites and discussing the information with their groups.

You will be able to measure the students success by their correct use of the scientific terms and the scientific concepts within their newspaper article. Additional effort such as putting a picture in the with the article or use of information from their notes can be acknowledge with some extra credit points.

This lesson is a good way to show students how the earth is connected and how places around the globe are suceptible to the same types of plate movement and earthquakes. This learning activity will help the students expand on what they have learned and apply it with a writing skill.