Respond to the following scenario:

o Your younger brother is in 5th grade. He comes home and tells you to look at an animation his teacher showed him in geology class.
o Review the Continents of the Past animation on this week¡¦s aXcess page.
o After viewing the animation, your brother has a look of disbelief on his face, ¡§C¡¦mon, really? Our whole continent moves? That¡¦s bogus!¡¨ Instead of blowing him off like you usually do, you decide to sit down and educate him about plate tectonics. First, you give him an overview about two historical figures that contributed to the plate tectonic theory. Then, you decide to show him how the plates move by boiling a pot of water (shown on p. 108) and relating it to mantle convection and plate movement.
„h Write a 200- to 300-word summary about the two historical figures and the process of mantle convection and plate movement.

i have Alfred Wegener and Auther Holmes would these be two historic figures?

If you mean Arthur Holmes, yes those are two historic figures in plate tectonics.

But since I haven't seen the animation, I have no idea if they were mentioned.

this is what my taecher wants......

1. Discuss two historical individuals that contributed to the theory of plate tectonics.
2. Discuss how the boiling pot of water animation is a small scale model of the convection that takes place under the Earth's crust - need some good detail here!
3. 200-300 words in length!
..So would i be on the right path?

I suggest you start by reading the information and studying the picture on p. 108. Take notes on it and then write up your notes.

If you get stuck, please post what you've learned so far and what you're still confused about.

Check our previous attempt to help a student with this question.

http://www.jiskha.com/display.cgi?id=1231544544

as for the two figuers i wrote:

A meteorologist named Alfred Wegener began to tell the world in 1912 about a hypothesis he called continental drift. According to this theory all continents began as one super continent he called “Pangaea”. His hypothesis explained and was backed by some evidence that all continents were once joined together and over time drifted apart forming separate continents. Then in 1915 Alfred drew a map showing the distribution of the continents about 300 million years ago which he once again called “Pangaea

AND

Then plate tectonics arose out of Alfred’s hypothesis of continental drift. So in 1920 Arthur Holmes comes along and suggests that the plate junctions might indeed lie beneath the sea. Then in 1928 he suggests that the convection currents within the mantle as the driving force. “Arthur Holmes suggested that this thermal convection was like a conveyor belt and that the upwelling pressure could break apart a continent and then forces the broken continent in opposite directions carried by the convection currents. This idea received very little attention at the time” (Indiana University, date unknown).

would this sound to you that i have Discussed two historical individuals that contributed to the theory of plate tectonics?

Yes. You wrote a good discussion of how these two men contributed to the theory of plate tectonics.

thank you very much.....

this is how i explained the process of the boiling water which is basiclly a easy version of Convection inside Earth drives the lithospheric plates on the surface.

what do you think?

As you have seen in the hot water animation the hottest water is at the bottom of the pan much like the heat source within the earth. Then when the hot water starts to rise much like the hot rock the cooler water near at the top of the pot like the cooled rock of the earth starts to sink and separate so that the hot water or rock may make it to the surface. See there is a cycle to be learned here. The boiling pot of water is a much smaller scale of the process that happens in the earth’s mantle, but instead of water rising to the top there is rock. The hot rock will rise to the surface and as it does the cooler rock sinks to make way for it. The hot water needs to surface so the cold water has no choice but to move out of the way.

Looks good! :-)

thank u ms. sue!

You're welcome, A.