Alternate Initial Model

1.A.1 Develop a model showing what is happening at a scale larger than we can see to explain what happened to the different mountains to cause them to change in elevation.

Students include a variety of mechanisms for the changes to Mt. Everest. We want to get as many student ideas as possible at this point. Included here are some examples of student suggestions, but this list is not inclusive or exhaustive: rocks moving from one side of the mountain to the other, snow building up on the mountain top, strong wind moving the mountain, (tectonic) plates under the mountain, hills colliding causing the mountain to grow, and earthquakes pushing mountains together.

This first initial model represents students’ ideas for how Mt. Everest moves to the northeast and increases in elevation. Later it will become a more general model to explain any mountain’s change in elevation and movement on Earth. For now, any ideas students have at this point in the unit is acceptable. Over the course of the unit, each of these ideas will be explored by figuring out what tectonic plates are and how they move, weathering factors and erosion factors.

If a student is struggling to get started on their model, remind them that our initial model is just that - our first attempt at explaining what we think is causing the changes to the mountains. Use Alternate: Initial Model to help students begin to develop their model so they have a scaffold to use as they think about the large and small scale causes for Mt. Everest to move and grow.