OpenSciEd Unit 6.4 · Lesson 10 · 10.A
Look for students to state in their claim that the two…
From Teacher Edition
Facilitation guidance from the lesson plan — what to notice in student thinking and how to respond while teaching.
Building towards
10.A Analyze maps displaying patterns of large sets of data to determine that Africa and South America could have been touching at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (spatial relationship) between roughly 125 and 146 million years ago.
What to look / listen for
- Look for students to state in their claim that the two continents were once touching at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
- Students should cite all datasets to show that the plates were touching.
Students should include the following reasons when justifying how the data supports their claim:
Similar rock types, rock strata, and land formations
some areas that show similarities can be traced directly across from one continent to another, specifically at the top and middle of the two continents.
Evidence of past glaciers
glacier data fits like a puzzle piece if the continents were moved together.
Location of fossils
fossils of the same type are found at the middle and bottom sections of both continents.
Rocks of similar types and ages
the top-middle of each rock layer are very similar across the two continents.
Areas where coral fossils have been found
coral fossils were found on the outside of the two continents, meaning that when they were formed there was no ocean in between the continents.
What to do
- Students should be able to make multiple connections between datasets and the continents touching. If students do not provide evidence from more than their original dataset, guide students to individually look at the dataset from another partner.
- Use the pre-cut pieces of continents with the data on them to move the continents back together so that they touch. Ask students if the data shown on the cards presents any patterns that span the two continents.
- After students have identified that the data shows a pattern across the two continents, allow students to revise their work.
Additional Lesson 10 Teacher Guidance
SUPPORTING STUDENTS IN MAKING CONNECTIONS IN MATH
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.NS.C.5
Understand that positive and negative numbers are used together to describe quantities having opposite directions or values (e.g., temperature above/below zero, elevation above/below sea level, credits/debits, positive/negative electric charge); use positive and negative numbers to represent quantities in real-world contexts, explaining the meaning of 0 in each situation.
As students are creating a model of where continents would have been located millions of years ago, they are working with positive and negative rates of motion. Initially, students use four meter sticks to represent the space between two continents, Africa and South America - this space representing the Atlantic Ocean and Mid-Atlantic Ridge - would represent the starting point, or location “0.” Using manipulative representations (cut outs) of the two continents, they discuss what it would look like in a year from now, and 10 years from now, etc., as they continue to move apart the two continent representations - this represents positive movement. In an effort to figure out if these two continents were together in the past, students work backwards in time, moving the manipulatives back towards each other, or in a negative movement.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.EE.B.7
Solve real-world and mathematical problems by writing and solving equations of the form x + p = q and px = q for cases in which p, q and x are all nonnegative rational numbers.
Students use approximated numeric data for yearly movement from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between Africa and South America to determine if these two continents could have been touching in the past. On Calculating Plate Movement, students use this data to solve equations that result in how long ago these two continents may have been together.