Discovering Plate Boundaries

This is the home of "Discovering Plate Boundaries," a data rich exercise to help students discover the processes that occur at plate tectonic boundaries. I have used DPB with students from 5th grade to Earth Science Majors at Rice University. It works well over this wide range because it requires the students to observe and classify data. It does not require prior knowledge of plate tectonics. However, I do vary my expectations of the students at different levels. The exercise is built around 4 global data maps: 1) Earthquake location and depth, 2) Location of recent volcanic activity, 3) Seafloor Age, and 4) Topography and Bathymetry.