EDUA 5353 Teaching Plate Tectonics
TEACHING PLATE TECTONICS: EARTHQUAKES, VOLCANOES, AND TSUNAMIS
Some of the most awe-inspiring and defining features of our planet’s surface – majestic mountain ranges, tropical islands, and vast canyons – were formed by the geologic phenomena of plate tectonics. Earthquakes and volcanoes have been shifting and breaking the earth’s crust for millions of years, sometimes in undetectable ways and other times in all-too-observable ways, such as deadly tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.
In this course, the teacher will learn about the history of our planet’s continental shifts as well as how the earth’s layers impact what happens on it’s surface. The course introduces how plate tectonics cause earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis from a historical and geologic perspective, and the effects of these phenomena on the earth’s land and oceans. The teacher will come away with practical ideas for demonstrating these phenomena through classroom experiments that bring these abstract processes to life and demystify some of the mysteries that lie deep beneath Earth’s surface.