Objective: Identify inaccuracies in Earth’s models

and how they can be misinterpreted.

Date

1a.b.

2a.b.

3a.b.

4a.

• Indirect Evidence Clay Model

• 1a.Using a toothpick to probe, draw what you think your model looks like on the inside.

• 1b. Now remove the clay and draw what was really there.

• For #2 a and b, carefully close the ball of clay up and trade with the table behind/front and do it one more time.

Carefully close the ball again and return to your teacher.

Sometimes we can not get direct evidence for our models, but rather indirect evidence like with our ball of clay.

We make models of almost everything, especially in Science so that we can share with others what our data is telling us.

Looking back in history, sometimes our best efforts have not produced correct models. Only the data we can retrieve can be used to make them as accurate as possible.

We are going to read about three models of Earth that have been proposed in the past and write down evidence that may show it was a correct model and evidence that the model may be wrong. Then with your table partner for ten seconds, discuss your answers.

Halley believed the Earth was hollow and within it was a second sphere. To account for all the variations in the magnetic field, Halley finally proposed that the Earth was composed of some four spheres, each nestled inside another.

a. What evidence is there that this is a good model?b. What evidence is there that this is NOT a good model?

• The discovery of an extinct wooly mammoth frozen in ice in Siberia was evidence of this hollow Earth theory.

• The single sun inside the earth theory suggested that the mammoth was so well preserved because it had died recently.

• Gardner thought that mammoths and other extinct creatures wandered freely in the interior of the earth. This one had wandered outside by using the hole at the North Pole, then was frozen and carried to Siberia on an ice flow.

a. What evidence is there that this is a good model?b. What evidence is there that this is NOT a good model?

Euler proposed a hollow-Earth idea, getting rid of multiple shells and postulating an interior sun to provide light to advanced inner-Earth civilizations.

a. What evidence is there that this is a good model?b. What evidence is there that this is NOT a good model?

Even the brightest students in the class have false ideas based on enduring misconceptions that traditional instructional methods cannot overcome.

http://www.learner.org/resources/series28.html?pop=yes&pid=9#

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

File:Woolly_Mammoth-RBC.jpg Hollow Earth Hypothesis http://www.crystalinks.com/

hollowearth.html