Snack Tectonics

For my model I used food to help model plate tectonics. In this lab frosting is the asthenosphere, fruit roll-ups are oceanic crust, and graham crackers represented continental crust. First the students spread out the frosting so it is about 1cm thick. Then they place the fruit roll-ups next to each other, push down slightly and pull them apart slowly. This models divergent boundaries and sea floor spreading.

Next the students placed one of the graham cracker squares next to one of the fruit roll-ups and gently pushed it. The graham cracker slides over the fruit roll-up and this models subduction. This is one of the convergent models demonstrated.

The next convergent boundary involves taking the two graham crackers and dipping one side in water for a few seconds. They then place them next to each other (wet side facing each other) and gently push them together forming mountains.

 Finally the students take new graham crackers and place them next to each other and slide them past each other repeatedly to represent transform boundaries and the formation of earthquakes.

This is a crowd pleasing lesson. I have done this lesson now with several grade levels from 2nd all the way up to 8th. This time around I was working with 5th graders.The only real problem occurs if the frosting is not spread out enough or if they do not pull the fruit rollups apart slow enough. The students were also suppose to draw a cross section of each model. This proved difficult for them. Since I am only subbing at the moment and do not have my own class I had to borrow a class. This is something I know I would have to work on with my students throughout the year. Overall the lesson went well!