This unit is intended to be used to educate middle school and high school audiences about the general characteristics of the earth.  It incorporates various hands-on activities to actively engage the audience.  As stated in the rationale, the general purpose of this unit plan is to provide evidence to support that plate tectonics (in particular) play a critical role in shaping the earth’s surface.  The nature of my coursework at Penn was centered around exploring the many forces of nature that play a huge role in that process. I decided to start with the fundamental concept of plate tectonics, because I believe that it is one that I could easily disseminate to my students as definitive proof that the earth is a dynamic place.  Throughout this unit, the students will be involved in a series of teacher-led and student-led activities.  (i.e. this unit will include some inquiry based ideas but will also include direct instruction.)  Some of the learning styles that will be focused on here will be:  tactile, visual, auditory, etc.  Additionally, some strands of the curriculum that will overlap here with portions of the: math, art and English requirements for instruction.  The purpose of the incorporation of cross-curricular strands and the utilization of different learning styles is to encourage all learners, through various modalities, to connect with the content.