Using demonstrations to teach Seafloor Spreading and Plate Tectonics

Laura Massa This looks really interesting!  How do you complete this lesson? Do you have anything you can share that I could use to incorporate your idea into my classroom.  I think my students would really enjoy this type of activity.

Yeah, this looks cool.  My students enjoy hands-on engaging activities.  If you're able to, please share some instructions to the activity.  I'm be on this unit next week and I'd love to try something new.  

Megan Suits and Todd Nussen This activity is an adaption of one I found online years ago. Unfortunately I don't have instructions because I read it and did it, though I modified it to incorporate details of Investigation 4. This is how I did it: students read the article Alfred Wegener and Harry Hess for homework. We debriefed the reading in class and I used images to clarify and explain the content. We watched two short videos: Plate Tectonics and Plate Boundaries which is super cool. Then students read Investigation 4. The next day we discussed all the documents in that package, however Texts # 5 & 6 required more explanation so I decided to use this simulation. The procedure is simple: I use blue paper to represent the seafloor. I fold the paper in half and insert it between two desks so students can pull the extremes to simulate the process of divergent plate boundary. I ask students to label each section of seafloor as it spreads (1,2,3). I ask students where the new rocks are located and why, and where they would find the old ones (new rocks are formed in the mid-oceanic ridge and as the process continues the old rocks will move further and further from the ridge). To explain the concept of paleomagnetism and magnetic pole reversal, I refer to Text # 6 that states that this process occurs approximately every 450,000 years. When students simulate seafloor spreading I point at the direction where the pole is located so they can draw the arrow. Every segment they label represents 450,000 years and has its corresponding magnetic field (like in the picture of Text # 6). This year I had time constrains due to changes in the school schedule so I decided to practice the demonstration on a prelabeled paper. Something new I did this year was to simulate the effects of paleomagnetism on rocks. I used staples because I didn't have small pieces of iron or metal. I dispersed them on the paper and then placed magnets below the paper to show how the metals in the rocks would be aligned to the magnetic pole when the rock solidified. Finally, to explain that the Earth does not grow in size because there are also convergent plate boundaries, I used a Styrofoam model I kept from one of my students presentations to show the formation of oceanic trenches. I moved the pieces and ask them questions while the demonstration took place. 

I don't know if the explanation was clear. Contact me if you have questions. 

Thanks Laura for all the info. and the explanation.  I think I got it and I'm going to try a modified version of this.  Thank you.

 Laura Massa , this is very interesting, and the model is spectacular. Thanks for sharing.

.Todd Nussen , I'm intrested to hear how you would (or did) modify this activity. I was thinking about somehow having someone under the desk to push up the new rocks as the paper spreads like the sea floor. That way students would see the ridges forming.

What do you think?

Laura Massa  Very cool visuals for the students to use!