Group Activity: The Mechanism behind Tectonic Plate Movement

Group No. _____________________________

Section: ________________________________
Members:
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Objective: Describe the possible cause of plate movement and relate it to convection current.
Materials
 Vegetable oil or Water  Match  Wood blocks
 Transparent Glass dish  Pepper  spoon
(preferably pyrex or any  2 Styrofoam (ensure  ruler
that can be heated) that that it can fit inside
 Candles the glass dish)

Procedure
1. Place water or vegetable oil on the glass dish. Add the ground
pepper and mix.
2. Place the edges of the glass dish on top of wood blocks.
3. Lit the candles and put it under the glass dish.
4. Continue heating the glass dish and observe what happens to the
movement of the pepper.
5. After 10 minutes of heating the water or vegetable oil, place 2
Styrofoam in the middle. Observe what happens to Styrofoam.
6. Using a ruler, measure the rate of speed (v=d/t) at which the
Styrofoam are moving until it hits the side of the glass dish.
7. Use a thermometer to measure the temperature at different areas of
water in the dish. The surface, the bottom, and even the sides. Figure 1

Guide questions:
1. Looking at your model, what do you think is represented by each part?
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2. What can you observe about the movement of the ground pepper? Why did you think made it move this
way?
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3. What can you observe about the movement of the Styrofoam? Why did you think it moved this way?
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4. Based on your experiment, what do you think is the major mechanism behind the movement of the
tectonic plates?
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Conclusion:
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