100 Days of Science # 65-- How to Teach Plate Techtonics With Graham Crackers

While learning all about the Earth's layers the boys and I talked a lot about plate tectonics. We had read often about the movement of the plates causing Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and land formations and we decided to carry out a little hands on experiment of our own.

Using some leftover frosting from Alec's cake model of the Earth's layers we smeared a good layer of frosting on a plate.  This layer of frosting simulated the movement of the mantle.  We then broke a graham cracker into two pieces to simulate the plates of the earth.  

Then we experimented with moving our crackers around.  Sometimes when they were pushed together a bit of the mantle came out-- like lava flowing up from underneath.

When we pulled them apart me made channels.

Sliding them past one another we could hear them grinding little pieces off each other and talked about how that might make things on top of it move and shake too.

Sometimes one of the plates slipped under the other; forming small mountains. 

Alec wanted to see how it worked when more than two plates collided since all those plates must converge at some point.

It was a fun and quick lesson and the boys really enjoyed eating their frosty graham crackers when they were done.

Edible lessons are so much fun!

Others in this series:

1.  Bernoulli's Principle

2.  Field Trip to the Ecotarium 

3.  Learning About Air Molecules

4.  Kitchen Science; Baking cupcakes

5.  Corn Maze Field Trip 

6.  Birds of Florida 

7.  Static foil drum

8.  Un-Make it Monday; Seeing Inside our DVD/VCR player

9. Wind Tunnel Experiment 

10. Biomes Marine Biology Center Field Trip  

11. Disappearing Coin Trick and the Science Behind it. 

12.  Snuff Out a Candle with Baking Soda and Vinegar

13.  Making Plastic from Milk

14.  Pencil in the Rice Friction Experiment

15 & 16.  Two Experiments using SNOW

17.  Making an Iceberg 

18.  Making an Egg Float

19.  Looking at Microscopic Organisms 

20.  Eco Plant pals

21&22.  Two Experiments with Cotton Candy

23. Springfield Science Museum Trip

24.  Teaching Children the Signs of Spring

25.  Color Changing Slime

26.  Growing Tickle Me Plants

27.  Learning About Soil Sampling

28.  Making Super Bouncy Balls 

29. Exploring the New England Shoreline

30.  Color Changing Flower Experiment 

31.  Roger Williams Zoo Trip

32.  Edible Silly Putty 

33.  Raising Tadpoles

34. More Microscope Fun

35. Making Homemade Ice Cream

36.  Observing Plants Breathe 

37.  Trip to Save the Bay Exploration Center and Aquarium

38. Making Fresh Peach Preserves 

39.  Making Solar S'mores

40.  Growing a Crystal Garden

41 & 42.  Jolly Rancher Candy Apples and Lollipops

43.  Volcanic Lemons 

44.  Oozing Pumpkins 

45.  Growing a Germ Farm

46.  Looking at the Germ Farm Under a Microscope

47 & 48.  Building Model Molecules Two Ways 

49.  Kitchen Chemistry Experiments 

50.  Fall Leaf Chromatography 

51.  Color Changing Experiments with Iodine

52.  Learning About Birds in Winter

53. Iodine and Starch Experiment
54. Flouride and Calcium Experiment
55. Botanical Gardens in Winter
56.  Making Cell Models
57. Which Has More Water; Ice or Snow?
58. Exploding Snow and Water Baggies
59.  Exploring Minerals
60. Visiting the Hartford Science Museum
61-63. 3 STEM Bridge Challenges
64. Making Models of the Earth