This year in science we did lots of projects and worked on many labs that taught us different things. My favorite unit so far this year has been the Plate Tectonics Unit, I liked this unit because I got to see how the Earth works, how faults and mountains form, and other exciting things. I think that this year in Science I grew in understanding how the Earth works.

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I think I grew in my understanding of Plate Tectonics because before the unit we made a growth recorder where we had to write down answers to questions before the unit and see what we thought after the unit to see how we understood more at the end. We did the content growth recorder in the begging of every unit we started. Before the unit I put “I don’t know” on every single question because I did not understand anything and did not know what anything was at that time. While I was learning new terms I was starting to understand more and more about the Earth that I could later put in my growth recorder.  When we answered the questions at the end of the unit I knew almost everything and realized I grew a lot in my understanding of the content I was being taught. I was happy to be able to answer most of the questions accurately on my content growth recorder.  Another thing that can show my growth in this content is my Plate Tectonics Project, in this project we had to make a model that represented how the earth’s plates work at that specific area on earth. The location my partners and I got was San Andreas Fault. We had to model how the Earth’s plates worked in that area, simulating how the plates moved against each other. Some words I learned through this project are, One, Plate Tectonics, the process of the Earth’s plates moving against each other creating faults, earthquakes, and other things. Two, Convection, The process that causes Earth’s plates to move across the mantel of the Earth. All these things I learned helped me understand plate tectonics a little better. I know this project helped me understand plate movement because I got to see exactly how the plates react to the different movements and what happens as a result of that movement, I started to better understand why and how plates move during that project. Plates move because of the process called Convection and as they move they interact with other plates around them. They can move towards each other directly and cause mountains, or, they can slide past each other to form faults in the Earth.

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I think that knowing how plate tectonics work can be helpful in the future because when you know things like this if you want to pursue a career in the science field knowing this could be helpful. Some jobs I could use this knowledge of plate tectonics in are Geologist, Ecologist, Hydrologist, Meteorologist, Marine scientist, a CAD technician, and many other jobs that can help me learn about how the Earth works in more detail.