Modeling Plate Tectonics Lesson Reflection

I enjoyed teaching my lesson this week using scientific modeling.  I used graham crackers and frosting to model Earth's plates and their movements at different boundaries.  The students began by sharing what they knew about mountains, volcanoes, and earthquakes on a KWL chart.  We watched a Brainpop video on plate tectonics and students recorded what they were wondering and wanted to know on their KWL.  Students had some difficulty developing questions, so next time I will record key words and phrases during the video then replay it for students to have a better grasp of the concepts.  Here's a photo of a completed KWL:

I gave students the materials for creating the model and a worksheet I created for them to record illustrations and explanations.  Students spread frosting on wax paper and placed graham crackers on top.  We pulled the plates apart (divergent boundary), pushed together to create mountains and volcanoes (convergent), and slid back and forth to create earthquakes (transform).  Here's photos of a some students modeling and their recording sheet:

Overall, the lesson went smoothly and was a good introductory lesson on constructive and destructive forces.  Students will continue learning about weathering, erosion, and deposition and can do independent research on volcanoes, mountains, earthquakes and tsunamis.  After recording what they learned on their KWL sheet, students got to the best part- EATING!