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Session 3. Journey to the Earth's Interior
Lava at the Hawaii
Volcano Observatory.
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Learning Goals
During this session you will have an opportunity
to build understandings to help you:
- Explain how we know about the Earth’s exterior
and interior
- Describe the internal structure of the Earth and the
nature of its layers
- Describe how igneous rocks are formed
- Relate the nature of lava and its source to the movement
of tectonic plates
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Video Overview
The theory of plate tectonics represents a unifying
set of ideas that have great power in explaining and predicting
major geologic
events. In this session, we continue to explore this theory by
focusing on how it is possible for tectonic plates to move. This
leads us
to examine Earth’s internal structure and the dynamic nature
of its interior, which reveals another story of the Earth that
rocks can tell.
Video Outline
How is it possible for tectonic plates — giant masses
of rock the size of continents and oceans — to move? To better
understand the theory of plate tectonics, we need to understand
what is happening
inside the Earth. No one has ever journeyed to the center of
the Earth, except in the movies. What would such a journey reveal
about
the interior of the Earth?
In the video, our journey starts at
the Earth’s surface. Just
what is a tectonic plate? And how do we know that plates move?
Dr. Keith Klepeis, who studies plate boundaries, offers evidence
from
current scientific theory to help us answer these questions,
which lead us to questions about lava: What is lava, what clues
does lava
give us about the Earth’s interior, and how is lava connected
to plate movement? Dr. Dave Sherrod, a vulcanologist with the
Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, takes us to an active lava flow
as a starting
point for building answers, with earthquakes becoming an important
source of evidence.
During the video, we watch interviews that
highlight children’s
ideas about how continents move and Earth’s internal structure.
We also visit Keedar Whittle, a science coordinator in Dorchester,
Massachusetts, and listen in as his sixth graders discuss earthquakes
and the nature and source of lava. View the video ==>
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