Discovering Plate Boundaries, A Data-Rich Inquiry-Based Classroom Exercise for Teaching Plate Tectonic Boundary Processes

Discovering Plate Boundaries is a classroom exercise based on 4 world maps containing earthquake, volcano, topography, and seafloor age data. A novel aspect of the exercise is the jigsaw manner in which student groups access the maps and use them to discover, classify, and describe plate boundary types. The exercise is based only on observation and description, which makes it useful at a wide variety of levels. We have used it successfully with middle school, high school, and college major and non-major earth science classes, as well as with pre-service and in-service teachers. The exercise takes three to four 50 minute class periods to complete and involves the students making presentations to one another in small groups and to the whole class. The students come away from the exercise with knowledge of the key features of each type of plate boundary and a sense of why each looks the way it does. While the materials are accessible on the web (http://terra.rice.edu/plateboundary/ and through http://www.dlese.org ), the actual exercise is not based on student access to the Web and is not dependent on classroom technology equipment.