1. Earth’s Interior
Plate Tectonics
Rocks and Minerals

2. Starter Activities: Choose one!!
 Listing Layers
- Make a list of objects that have layers. Create a T
chart with the Earth’s Layers on one side and your
chosen object on the other. Compare the two.
 What Forms a Crust?
- List things that form crusts. Examples: Glue, gravy,
pudding, etc. Do a quick-write about what causes
these things to form a crust.

3. Layers of the Earth to Scale
 Inner core = 1300 km = 13.0 cm
 Outer core = 2250 km = 22.5 cm
 Mantle = 2900 km = 29.0 cm
 Crust = 300 km = 3.0 cm
 Mt. Everest = 5 km = .5 mm
 Mariana Trench = 15 km = 1.5 mm
 Space shuttle = 300 km = 3 cm

4. Earth’s Interior
with vocabulary
Crust: The thin solid outermost layer of Earth; is
continental (landmasses) or oceanic (ocean
bottoms) crusts
Lithosphere: The cool, rigid, outermost layer of
Earth includes the crust; pieces of this layer are
called lithospheric plates

5.  Asthenosphere: The solid layer with plasticity
in the upper mantle that is located just below
the lithosphere; lithospheric plates “float” and
move on this layer
 Mantle: layer of Earth between the crust and
the core; it is not a liquid, but more like a hot,
plastic material (think GAK)
 Convection currents: Transfer of thermal
energy in which warmer fluid ( plastic like)
rises and cooler fluid (plastic like) sinks

6.  Outer Core: The outer shell of Earth’s core;
surrounds the inner core and is made of liquid
nickel and iron
 Inner Core: The sphere of solid nickel and iron
at the center of Earth; surrounded by the liquid
outer core

7. Videos and Simulations
For Earth Layers
Bill Nye Earth’s Crust

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MucQmSIKElU&feature=r
elated
 People running on Oobleck video – represents what
plasticity may look like and how the Asthenosphere
and Mantle are

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHlAcASsf6U
 Mr. Lee Layers of the Earth Rap Song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiHRI_Z2Kgs

9. PLATE TECTONICS!

10. Tectonic Plates: Huge pieces of lithosphere that slowly
move on the asthenosphere. It consists of the crust and the
rigid, uppermost part of the mantle
Subduction: Occurs when one plate is denser than another
and is forced below as the two plates converge at their
boundary

11.  Volcanic Eruptions: Major geological events that
occur when a dense plate subducts below a less
dense plate as they converge
 Earthquakes: Major geological events that occur
when plates shift suddenly and release stored
energy; a frequent occurrence at transform
boundaries

12.  Mountain Building: Major geological event that
occurs when continental plates of equal density
converge
 Ocean Basins: Movement of plates create dense
oceanic crust that sinks lower in the asthenosphere,
resulting in depressions on Earth’s surface that fill
with water

13. Videos and Simulations
For Plate Tectonics
 Earth 100 Million years from now

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGcDed4xVD4&feature=r
elated 2 minutes
 The Early Earth and Plate Tectonics
 Http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDqskltCixA 4 minutes edited
 Plate Tectonics: Divergent/ Convergent boundaries,
seafloor spreading, volcanoes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryrXAGY1dmE&feature=r
elated

14. Plate Boundaries
 Convergent plate boundary: formed
where two sections of Earth’s crust are
colliding
 Divergent plate boundary: forms were
lithospheric plates are moving away
from each other

15.  Transform plate boundary: boundary between
two lithospheric plates where the plates are
sliding past each other
 Mid-ocean ridge: undersea mountain range
that forms where two parts of Earth’s crust are
pushing apart (divergent plate boundary)
 Uplift: Pushing up of Earth’s crust by forces
within Earth, such as the action of two
lithospheric plates moving toward each other

17. Bill Nye video
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MucQmSIKElU
 24 minutes
 Students need to write 5 interesting things they find in
the video in their journal. Must be in complete
sentences.
Land Beneath the Earth worksheet for the remainder of
the time. Students should be working quietly, and raise
their hand if they need help.

18. Earthquakes!!
 How earthquakes work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNyVPsj8zc&feature=fvwrel 2 ½ minutes
 Seattle Quake:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0WuSCaTYI0&f
eature=relmfu 2 ½ minutes

19. Volcanoes!!
 Erupting volcano:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DceHEBGVfj4
2 minutes
 Mt St. Helens:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP2dreOI8gI&fea
ture=endscreen&NR=1 7 ½ minutes
 Volcano forming in the ocean:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsKTzBZNjtE&fe
ature=endscreen&NR=1 1 ½ minutes

20. Tsunamis
 2011 Japan Tsunami – Japan tsunami ravaging the city
of Kesennuma
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQfdl7y-blE 6
minutes
How a tsunami is made – 1 minute
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMbC7CN10kM&f
eature=related

21. Rock Cycle

22.  Rock cycle – a cycle of processes
undergone by rocks in and on the earth’s
crust

23. Rock Cycle Animation
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks3bitesize/science/en
vironment_earth_universe/rock_cycle/activity.shtml

24. Rocks
 Igneous Rock: Rock formed when heated magma or
lava cools and hardens
 Sedimentary Rock: Rock formed when sediments
deposited in layers, compact, and cement together
under pressure over long periods of time
 Metamorphic Rock: Rock deep within Earth’s crust
that has been exposed to extreme heat and pressure
causing changes to its appearance, structure, and
composition

26. Videos and Simulations
For Rocks and Minerals
Types of Rocks Song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE3jR_RhxO4&feature=rel
mfu
Mr. Lee’s Rock Cycle Rap
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkGVE6wNAzo&feature=relmfu
Rock Cycle Song (Life is a Highway)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53lMdHzvGCQ&feature=r
elated

27. Mineral Identification
Ways that help identify a mineral:
 Luster – how shiny or dull a mineral appears
 Streak – what is left behind when a mineral is
scratched across a streak plate
 Hardness – Mohs hardness scale, how hard a
mineral actually is
 Color – the color of the mineral
 Magnetism – is the mineral magnetic or not
 Taste – does the mineral have a specific,
identifying taste

28. Mohs Hardness
Scale
 How you
can
identify minerals
by hardness

29. Rock Cycle
 http://www.learner.org/interactives/rockcycle/diagra
m.html
Rock Cycle Simulation activity