SAINT FRANCIS UNIVERSITY
Loretto, Pa 15940
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
LESSON PLAN
Student Teacher: Charles Hesbacker
Date: March
8th Grade Earth Science
Time: 45 minutes
Lesson Concept: Forces in Earth’s Crust
PENNSYLVANIA STATE STANDARDS:
3.2.7. B. 1. Measure materials using a variety of scales
3.5.7. A. Describe earth features and processes.
3.5.7. A.2. Describe the processes involved in the creation of geologic features (e.g., folding, faulting, volcanism,
sedimentation) and that these processes seen today (e.g., erosion, weathering, crustal plate movement) are
similar to those in the past.
3.5.7. A.3. Describe the processes that formed Pennsylvania geologic structures and resources including
mountains, glacial formations, water gaps and ridges.
3.8.7. B. Explain how human ingenuity and technological resources satisfy specific human needs and improve the
quality of life.
STUDENT OBJECTIVES:
As a result of this lesson, the S.W.B.A.T.:
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Explain how stress in the crust changes the Earth’s surface.
Describe what faults are, where they are found, and why they form.
Identify the land features that result from plate movement.
VOCABULARY:
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Stress, tension, compression, shearing, normal fault, reverse fault, strike-slip fault
Hanging wall, footwall, anticline, syncline, plateau
ANTICIPATORY SET
PRETEACH: Build Background Knowledge
Experience with Earthquakes:
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Encourage any students who have experienced an earthquake to describe the event
o Where they were at the time
o How they first became aware that an earthquake was occurring
o What happened to the buildings and objects around them
o How they felt during and after the quake
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If students have not experienced an earthquake,
o Let them relate what they have learned from television reports, movies,
newspaper and magazine articles, and other sources.
PROCEDURE
INSTRUCT:
Focus
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Teach
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Apply
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INSTRUCT
Focus
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Teach
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Apply
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Teach Key Concepts: Types of Stress
Remind students that the motion of magma just under the Earth’s crust causes the
movement of plates.
How does stress in the Earth’s crust change the Earth’s surface? (Stress pushes, pulls, or
twists the rocks in Earth’s crust.)
What type of landform results from tension? (Valley)
What type of landform results from compression? (Mountain)
Have students demonstrate the three types of stress with a piece of paper
o Shearing: fold the paper in half and rub the two sides together.
o Compression: crumble the paper
o Tension: pull the paper in opposite directions.
Teach Key Concepts: Kinds of Faults
Point out that the kind of fault that occurs depends on the kind of force acting on the rocks.
As the students read the description of each type of fault and examine each
accompanying diagram, ask them how they would illustrate each type of fault.
o Strike-slip Fault (the students press their hands together and slide one hand
pass the other maintaining constant pressure.)
o Normal Fault (Hold open hands with the fingers pointing toward one another, lay
the fingers of one hand over the fingers of the other hand, and then move the
hands away from each other.)
o Reverse Fault (Hold the hands as described for a normal fault but move them
towards each other.)
Remind students that there are places where plates are converging.
o Ask: What do you think happens to Earth’s crust in those places as the plates
move towards each other? (Over long periods of time, the crust compresses,
forming mountains and other landforms.)
o Ask: What type of stress force is occurring along those boundaries between
plates? (Compression.)
o Ask: What type of fault would you expect to find there? (Reverse fault.)
Have students draw a quick sketch of each type of fault.
INSTRUCT
Teach Key Concepts: Changing Earth’s Surface
Focus
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Review the three types of stress: tension, compression, and shearing.
Teach
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Ask:
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How can Earth’s surface be changed over time? (It can be folded, stretched, and
uplifted by plate movement.)
Which type of land features sometimes consist anticlines and synclines? (Folded
mountains)
How can tension create mountains? (As Earth’s crust is stretched, normal faults
form. High areas occur between down-dropped blocks.)
Which landform forms when a large area of land is uplifted without much folding
or faulting? (Plateaus)
Apply
Ask:
o
Where in the United States are:
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Folded mountains (Appalachians)
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Normal-fault mountains (Basin and Range region of Nevada)
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Plateau (the Colorado Plateau)
INDEPENDENT PRACTICE
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Forces in the Earth’s Crust (Guided Reading and Study)
CLOSURE
CHECKING FOR UNDERSTANDING
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What are the three main types of stress in rock?
How does tension change the shape of Earth’s crust?
Compare the way compression affects the crust to the way that tension affects the crust.
What is a fault?
Why do faults often occur along plate boundaries?