| Most of us don’t think of the Earth as a system of structures and processes, but students using the Earth Structures unit experience this firsthand. To understand how the system works and how it affects our world, students research the structure of the Earth’s crust, tectonic plate locations and movement, and the mechanisms of earthquakes and volcanoes. |  |
The pretext of the curriculum is that the National Geological Survey is preparing for a global conference to discuss the systemic activity of the earth. Students must report on this activity, project changes, and suggest areas for further study. The unit is divided into five phases:
 | What are Earth structures? The unit begins with a look at earth structures, such as Mt. St. Helens, the African Rift Valley, and St. Helena Island. In small groups, students study different structures and begin to form explanations of how structures form and how they might change. | | Earthquake! In this phase, students explore current earthquake data, practice finding locations by latitude and longitude, gather data, and represent data on maps. Through these activities they begin to make connections between the earthquake data and the earth structures from the previous phase. | | Mapping earth’s plates: Through a series of hands-on activities, students identify tectonic plates, map their locations, and predict the plates’ future movement. | | Putting it all together: Using analyses of data, topographical maps, and physical models, students make reports to the class about their Earth structures and how plate movement might affect each one. |
| Earth Structures and Processes uses the Geodynamics Database, a data-mapping application that provides multimedia information on volcanoes, volcanic landforms and products, faults, earthquake effects, and plate tectonics. Some teachers also use Progress Portfolio to support the curriculum.
Click here for hardware and system requirements. The Geodynamics database cannot be downloaded. It is a commercial product available from EME Science Corporation. | | To learn more about this sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade curriculum, go to its project site or contact Lou-Ellen Finn or Chandra James at 847-491-5420. | Please click on these thumbnails to see screenshots of this software. Use your browser's Back button to return to the software menu.  | Students begin with large maps and zoom in to the specific areas they have decided to study. |  | Students can also look at relief maps to help them relate plate and earthquake activity to earth structures such as mountains, valleys, and rivers. |  | Students can also access plate boundary maps to see where plates are in relation to continents, earthquake zones, and volcanoes. |
|
|
