How Do Tectonic Plates Move?

This week we learnt about the layers of the earth and how tectonic plates move through our experiments with icing (magma), biscuits (tectonic/oceanic plates) and rice crackers (continental plate). First we used our observation skills and studied the materials we used and collated class word banks and then created group observations of our experiments. We then learnt about instructional writing and wrote about our experiences using scientific language.

Room18 Science Explanations

Convergent is when two plates go together they make big mountains, that's how the Himalayas where made. Divergent Tectonic Plates is when two plates split apart. Amber

When the plates slide and rumble together they start an earthquake under the ground, then make an earthquake in a WHOLE COUNTRY. Alice B

When  I pushed  the  biscuits  together  with  the icing it  was  shaped like  a mountain I think it  was  magiC  i  was  surprised  it  was  amazing  then  i  tried to  SCRAPE it. It made  a  funny sound krrrk I was LAUGHING so hard. Mahir

I saw mountains coming up when I  pushed the biscuits/tectonic plates together. The icing tasted delicious so did the biscuits. But I couldn't really smell anything. When I  slid them apart it looked really gooey and it was hard sliding them apart because it was  really sticky. Then I slid the biscuit over the rice cracker and it looked slimy and gooey as well. Then we had to do a transform movement which is when we rub the biscuits together it was really crumbly when I rubbed them together. We had to write our observations/what we saw and then we got to... EAT THEM!!! Thomas

We where in class and we did an experiment. We got a rice cake and icing sugar and biscuits then pushed them together. Monaro

What happened? Well what happened when we did it we did four experiments.

One - CONVERGENT, that is when the plates slide TOWARDS each other. it was actually quite amazing, it formed a mountain.

Two - convergent oceanic and continental, its when We added the rice cake No action happened, so kinda boring..

Three - convergent continental, I don't know what should have because all i saw was brown bird poop.

Four - transform, well we slid theM beside each other it sounded horrible horrible Like someone scraping their fingernails on a black board… But it tasted yummy! Alexander

We had cookies and icing  sugar and we broke it in half then we put it back together and rubbed them. After that the teacher put icing sugar then we put the cookies down and we rubbed it again then we ate them. I ate 2. It was yummy and good and we made a mountain. It even tasted like ice cream. I liked it so much that the smell was good. Ello

When we put the cookies in the icing it made mountains and the best thing was that we got to eat it in the end. Emily

This week room 18 did an amazing experiment called moving tectonic plates. I rubbed the two halved biscuits together and I could hear grinding. We did another one. When I pushed the next tow biscuits together it formed mountains. When we did the last one we dipped the sides into water then on icing it disintegrated. Zoe

On  Monday my class did an experiment when the tectonic plats rub together they make an earthquake! Malia

We got breakfast biscuits and broke them in half. Thomas was the leader so he did ALL the experiments. I wanted to do ONE experiment BUT Thomas took it off me. So, anyways I pushed the  biscuits together and… mountains FORMED!!!!!!! Kelly-May

Plate tectonics are layers of the earth like the crust. It is epic and sweet. I love it, it’s special. Kotahi

We had icing, biscuit’s, and rice crackers/rice cake. This week room 18 did an experiment. I (Luca) did one of them LITERALLY!!!!!!!!!!!! Luca

When tectonics plates hit each other They move together and it makes a big mountain. Then the other experiment with the biscuits was really hard to do because their were too many cookie and I was confused. Because it was a lot more than I thought. Some of our plates go under the other plate, when the plate goes under the other. The plate will melt because it is too close to the magma chamber. Some times they can stay put but not for long. Laurence

When the tectonic plates go together one goes under the ground. Inside the earth it is hot because the magma is super hot. The water is on top of the tectonics plates. It was cool, a good experiment and it was super yummy. Maxwell

What I saw: When we scraped the biscuits in the icing and we removed the biscuits the crust of the biscuit looked like soil starting to break. What I tasted: I tasted the sweetness from the icing and the sweetness from the biscuit. It was SUPER sweet. What I smelt: I smelt some weird kind of smell. What I heard: I heard some scraping noises and people talking. Ruuben