Appreciation for development of the lab from which this was modified goes to Dr. Karl Leonard (MSUM) and Dr. Dale Sawyer at Rice University.

How We Know What We Know:  The Tectonic Plates

 This exercise in an introduction to plate tectonics and the types of information used to support this theory.  The objective of the exercise is to give students an opportunity to see how the data is interpreted, and the opportunity to make their own interpretations.  By the end of the exercise, students should better understand of the theory of plate tectonics.

Steps:
    1)  With your regular group, look at each of the maps briefly and talk briefly about the significance of each
    2)  Assign each group member to examine one of the maps more completely, making sure that someone is assigned to the earthquake map and the chronology map, and other maps if your group has enough people.
    3)  Each member of your group should join with other people who are assigned to examine that same map.  Discuss it AT  LENGTH AND IN DETAIL.  Talk about what it means, notice things that might be clues to plate tectonics, discuss where plate boundaries are and what kind of plate boundaries they are.
    4)  Rejoin your regular group.  Discuss the input from each of the separate maps (I suggest that you let each person speak briefly about their map).
    5)  Using colored pencils, draw different types of boundaries on your black and white map.  Use Red for a divergent boundary, Blue for a convergent boundary, and Green for a transform boundary.  Using a pencil or pen, Write the evidence supporting the placement of the boundary AND the interpretation of the kind of boundary that it is on at least one example of each kind of boundary.

DO NOT WRITE ON THE COLORED MAPS!

Each group should turn in:  One map with colored plate boundaries.  Your evidence should either be cited directly on this map, or, if there is not enough room to do this clearly, you should put your evidence on a separate sheet of paper, but clearly indicate which boundary that evidence is related to.
 
 Color Maps (pdf files - require Adobe Acrobat) A) geochronology , B) seismology , C) volcanology , D) geography ,

                  Map showing plate boundaries:  plate map