Week 10: Earth's Structure

 What did you do in lab today?

I was not in lab because of a doctor's appointment, but I talked to some of my peers in the class and discussed with them what we did in lab. We learned about assessments, such as how we can assess our students, what we need to be teaching them, and the different kinds of assessment. We looked over data based on assessment scores, what they really mean, and looked over examples from questions and data we have answered in this class. We then learned about the layers of the earth along with how plates move. We shared our videos that we made about convection currents and how they play a role in the earth's layers and plate tectonics.  

What was the big question?

How does the earth work and change over time? 

What did you learn in Thursday's discussion?

In Thursday's lecture, I learned about the layers of the earth such as the crust, mantle, outer core, and the inner core. I learned about the hot spots in Hawaii, and that is where the magma chambers are for the volcanoes. Volcanoes progressively get older in Hawaii as you move along the islands from the Southeast to the Northwest. This is also the way the plate is moving. I learned about the rock cycle with igneous rock, sediments, sedimentary rock, and metamorphic rock, and how they all play a role with each other with heat and pressure, erosion, and weathering. I learned that weathering is when rocks are attacked by certain things in the environment. There are two different kinds of weathering, mechanical and chemical. I learned that erosion is the movement of sediment. 

Pressbook: 

- What did you learn?

I learned that the crust is made up of rocks such as basalt and granite and is very thin compared to the other layers. The mantle is the thickest layer of the earth and is made up of magma and plate tectonics float on this layer and that is how they move. The inner and outer core, which are the two layers that are closest to the middle of the earth, are extremely hot. These layers are made up of different metals and it is so hot that even the metals are always in a liquid state. I learned that each plate moves very slow, about 1 or 2 inches in a year. I learned that there are three different types of plate tectonic boundaries. The transform boundary is when plates slide past one another. Divergent boundaries are when plates are pulling apart from each other. Convergent boundaries are when the plates are pushing into each other. Different landforms happen from the different types of boundaries. I learned that volcanoes can be formed from converging tectonic plates, from a hot spot, or from diverging plates.  

- What was most helpful?

The things that were the most helpful for me are the pictures of the different plate movements. The one that shows the tectonic plate boundaries with the convergent plate boundary, transform plate boundary, divergent plate boundary, and the continental rift zone where the young plate boundary is was helpful to me. I think this gave me a better idea as to how all of these things play a role with one another. Also the picture of the volcano formation was helpful. 

- What do you need more information on?

I would like more information on the Law of Superposition and the Law of Original Horizontality. I would like to know more about how they play a role with one another. Maybe another video on these ideas. 

- What questions, concerns, and/or comments do you have?

Is it hard to find fossils or easy because they can only be in sedimentary rocks? I also did not know that fossils were very fragile.