After we answered questions on the DQB, students were asked to reflect upon any other curiosities they had in regards to all the figuring out they had done.  They were asked to consider local phenomena or phenomena based on where students have traveled. 

There were so many things students were interested in!  From the Rockies in our backyard, to islands in the Carribean, to caves, volcanoes, and plates on other planets, these students are curious about applying science ideas they've figured out to other parts of the world.  

Mrs. Brinza made a choice board for students to explore!  

When students return to the Driving Question Board and realize all the questions they set out to answer could be answered.  Here's just a handful of questions students answered...way to go 8th grade!  I'm so proud of you!

After considering forces that are happening both above and below mountains, students worked hard to see how differences in erosion and uplift rates can cause mountains to change different.  So what happens when...

We might have a mountain growing, like Everest, a mountain slowly shrinking like Mt. Mitchell, and a mountain left unchanged like Narodnaya!  Students had a chance to celebrate all their figuring out by getting creative, making memes.  Here are a few to laugh about!  Note the science concepts embedded within them!

Next steps...revisit our Driving Question Board to see all the questions we can answer!

After comparing their work to the work of actual scientists, students were excited to see that their ideas weren't that off!  In fact, they were really close based on the evidence they used in class.  One thing students noticed, however, was that at the 146 million years into the past mark--Mt. Everest didn't even exist, yet the Appalachians did!  So just how old are these mountains, and where will they be in the future.  Even returning to our DQB, we realized that some students were curious weeks ago about the future of Everest!

​So we turned to an online simulator to help us see these changes over time! We saw some incredible things, including the fact that the Appalachians are really old, and the Himalayas are just a baby!

Using data from all the continents, students worked in groups to envision what all the land masses looked like in relation to plate movement and other forms of data they requested from the continents.  Some sets of data were clearer than others!

With these data, students were asked to compile all the data and position where these land masses were 146 million years ago.  

​The really interesting piece of evidence students saw was that in the mountain data, Mt. Everest didn't even exist 146mya!  But the Appalachians did.  If 146mya began the mark that some continents split up, then how on Earth did the Appalachians form anyway?  We know how mountains grow, so what was going on prior to 146mya? This will be our next area of focus!

In the meantime, all this hard work allowed us to compare our work with the work of real scientists.  Real scientists have created a model of Earth 146mya, and 8th graders were so ecstatic that their models were incredibly similar to the work of real scientists!

So after summarizing what we've figured out so far in regards to mountain growth and relocation, we returned to our DQB to see that we still had questions left unanswered.  We have some questions regarding both the future and past regarding Mt. Everest. 

Using data near Everest can be tricky, since the plates creating Everest are going in many directions and are quite complicated.  Instead, we turned to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.  Since we know the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is  pushing Africa and South America apart, and creating new ocean floor in between them along with trenches, volcanoes, and other landforms like fissures, we wanted to go back in time and see what it would look like if we went the opposite direction of where plates were going today.  

However, just using plate movement data isn't enough.  We considered geologic time, doing the mathematical analysis to see that these land masses (S. America and Africa) on their respective plates are moving at a rate of 48-56mm apart a year, it would take 125-146 million years to get back to when they would right smack next to each other!

This means that there wouldn't be ocean between them and we'd need to look at other data based on the continents.  Here are the lists of data students came up with!

So with a bit of research, Mrs. Brinza came up with some of the data students requested, and using a bit of grit to cut and glue our evidence together, we seemed to have some data that better supported the positioning of S. America in relation to Africa about 145 million years into the past!

This wasn't enough--students suggested that we have GPS data from all the continents moving, so they want data on all the continents.  Where exactly were they 146 million years ago?  What data helps us better understand where they were?  Will it be glaciers?  Fossils?  Rock layers?  Mountains?  Only time will tell!

Check out some student groups' summaries, where other groups offered feedback to their work.  Way to go 8th graders...you're really seeing just how sophisticated the process to changing Earth's surface really is!

After predicting what would happen when two plates move apart, students gathered evidence from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, an expansive section in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean that is splitting apart!

After seeing all the differences in the landforms that can occur along the ridge (fissures, slow volcanoes, minerals being released, gases/steam coming out of the ground, new ocean floor being developed as magma's pushes upward and cools, etc), we recognize that plates moving away from each other also drastically shape the way Earth changes, slowly but surely!  We updated our Mountain Movement Changes chart...and it's more complicated that we ever thought!

It looks like it's time to put LOTS of ideas together!

Students were asking for more data on the plate activity where volcanoes are happening.  Here's what we came up with!

If oceanic plates always go under a continental plate because oceanic plates are more dense, what happens to the stuff that's on top of oceanic plates--like the sediment and water?

"Well...it's hotter as you go deeper, so those sediments and water would heat up.  The sediments would melt, and the water would boil and evaporate.  And wait, if there's a continental plate on top of all this, wouldn't the pressure build up like a pot on the stove that has a lid on it?"

This idea wasn't taken lightly!  We did some research by reading an article to further prove this idea.  Yes, volcanoes are happening when the oceanic plate subducts, or goes under the continental plate...and that's when the magic happens!

So if we've figured out a lot about what happens when plates come together, what exactly happens when plates move apart?  Check out our ideas we're claiming happen!  There's only one way to figure out if our claims are right--gather some evidence from where plates are moving apart!

We revisted our Mountain Movement Causes chart to recognize that there is indeed a need to explore volcanoes and their possible role in all our mountains changing!

From here, we wanted to revisit our mountains that we've focused so much on.  What's going on with their shifting? Their change in height?  Can volcanoes be the cause of each of these location's changes? What if there are no active volcanoes there?  Seems like the data is telling us something!