Journey to the Earth's Interior

Journey to the Earth’s interior
Gabriella Robinson

Materials Needed:
Interactive White Board
Internet connection
Computer

National Science Standards

Earth and Space Science ( Grades 5-8)

• Structure of the Earth System
• Earth History

National Geography Standards
• The physical properties that shape the patterns of Earth’s surface


Learning Objectives

The students will
• Learn that the interior of the Earth is divided into layers
• Understand continental drift
• Learn that fossils provide evidence about the nature of the environment in which they live

Overview

Ask the students:
What do you know about earthquakes? The layers of the Earth? Fossils? And plate movement? Record these responses on the white board. After discussing and recording responses to these focus questions ask students to view a segment of the video, “The Case of the Shaky Quake”. The video is available at the website http://www.knowitall.org/nasa/scifiles/index2.html . After viewing segment one the students will be asked to describe the layers of the earth. The teacher will then review the following concepts : fossils and the Earth’s history . The students will watch a presentation from the website http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/fossils/contents.html . The students will continue to explore these concepts with a partner by using the internet as well as print resources to gather additional information.


Vocabulary
Igneous rocks
Crust
Earthquake
Fossils
Inner core
Mantel
Outer core
Pangaea
Plate tectonics
Sedimentary rocks

Resources

http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/fossils/contents.html

www.nasa.gov

http://www.knowitall.org/nasa/scifiles/index2.html

http://scifiles.larc.nasa.gov/viewonline.html