Can you sum up this page
The purpose of the lab was to observe how convection currents move and relate them to tectonic plate movement. Also to observe plate boundaries and determine how they affect earth's surface. First I set up four cups next to each other with space in the middle and then put a plastic container on top of the cups and filled it half way with cold water? Then placed squares of paper on the water and dropped food coloring into the middle of the container. Last I observed the convection cycle for three minutes and recorded my data every 30seconds. I then repeated the experiment with hot water placed in the middle of the cups under the food coloring and observed and recorded the data for five minutes. By doing this experiment I was able to see how convection currents work.
For the second experiment I used frosting, fruit roll-ups and graham crackers to model plate boundaries. By laying frosting on wax paper and placing two fruit roll-up pieces next to each other in the frosting and then pushing them apart models a divergent boundary. Then I removed one fruit roll up and placed a graham cracker square about an in from the fruit roll-up in the frosting. Then I pushed the graham cracker up to the fruit roll-up until it overlapped with the cracker on top. Then I removed both the fruit roll up and the cracker and replaced them with two graham crackers that I wet with water on the sides facing each other and placed them on the frosting and then pushed the crackers up to each other where the wet edges collide. These modeled convergent boundaries. Last I put two new crackers on the frosting and moved the crackers next to each other so that the edges scraped along each other as I moved them. This modeled a transform boundary.
After making and recording my observations I was able to compare and contrast how the food coloring and the pieces of paper before and after adding heat to the system. The food coloring in the cold water stayed at the bottom of the container while the heated food coloring rose to the top and to the sides before cooling and sinking again to the bottom. The movement is caused by the heat through the water and forming convection current. The more heat in the water the less dense it is allowing the food coloring to rise. Then at the surface the water cools and becomes denser so the food coloring sinks to the bottom. The paper represents earths plates. The plates or in this case move because of convection currents which are caused by heat from earth's core.
I also was able to understand plate boundaries and how they occur. Transform boundaries are when two plates rub against each other when this happens earthquakes can form. Volcanoes also form as a result of plate boundaries, in convergent boundaries when oceanic and continental plates collide. Plate movement may change the shape of earth's surface and in turn cause geologic events to take place.
And add this to the summed up version?
The first experiment involved setting up four cups with a plastic container on top and filling it with cold water. Square pieces of paper were placed on the water, and food coloring was dropped into the center of the container. The convection cycle was observed and recorded for three minutes. The second experiment used frosting, fruit roll-ups, and graham crackers to model plate boundaries - divergent, convergent, and transform. Different actions were taken with the frosting and the crackers to simulate the movement and interaction of tectonic plates.