Students should be familiar with Cartesian coordinate systems (taught beginning in about 4th grade).

This activity can be used at any time in an earth science class. However, in the sequence of lessons about plate tectonics, it is an optional prequel to Measuring plate motion with GPS for students who cannot yet graph earth science data skillfully or confidently.

It is expected to take two class sessions (45-55 minutes or can be provided as homework).

Show Overview of EarthScope "Teaching Plate Tectonics with GPS" Curriculum Structure

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Although each lesson can be taught on its own, these lessons are designed to be taught in sequence for maximum impact and learning.

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Teaching Plate Tectonics with GPS - curriculum overview

Provenance: UNAVCO
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.

Students will be able to:

• Make and interpret graphs (of GPS data)
• Interpret time series plots (position vs. time) qualitatively and quantitatively
• Map north vs. east positions to follow a GPS station's location through time
• Derive and describe velocity vectors from a map

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A graph of a GPS monument’s north-south position over time. The monument is UNAVCO P430, in Washington state.

Provenance: This work is based on materials provided by the UNAVCO Education and Community Engagement Program, Plate Boundary Observatory, and the GAGE Facility supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under NSF award: EAR 1261833 and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Authors are Roger Groom (Mt. Tabor Middle School), Cate Fox-Lent (UNAVCO), Shelley Olds (UNAVCO), Nancy West (Quarter Dome Consulting), and Kathleen Alexander (UNAVCO).
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.

• Using fictitious data, graph north vs. time and east vs. time.
• Using real data, graph north vs. time and east vs. time.
• Using real data, graph north vs. east, draw a vector to best fit the data, and measure the vector's orientation and length, thus determining the GPS station's velocity.

MEASURING PLATE MOTION WITH GPS: The next lesson in this sequence is the introductory activity: Measuring plate motion with GPS: Iceland, to learn the basics on how GPS works then learn about Iceland.

Lesson Resources

• Student and teacher files are available as both PDF and docx formats. You can also download all files as one zip file Introduction to graphing GPS data - All Files (Zip Archive 59.3MB Oct17 21)
• Teacher Files: Introduction to graphing GPS data - Teacher Guide (PDF) (Acrobat (PDF) 2.6MB Oct17 21) OR Introduction to graphing GPS data - Teacher Guide (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 35.7MB Jan15 22)
• Student Files: Introduction to graphing GPS data - Student Worksheet (PDF) (Acrobat (PDF) 2.9MB Oct17 21) OR Introduction to graphing GPS data - Student Worksheet (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 1.7MB Oct17 21)
• A supporting presentation in both PDF and PowerPoint formats is also available
  Introduction to graphing GPS data - Presentation (PDF) (Acrobat (PDF) 5MB Jan15 22) OR Introduction to graphing GPS data - Presentation (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 13.7MB Oct17 21)

While students first learn to graph in about 4th grade, even high school advanced chemistry, physics, and Earth science students have floundered when asked to graph their lab data by hand. Students can be skilled at using graphing technology—calculators and computers—without understanding the graph. For students who struggle to make or interpret graphs, this activity can guide them to make sense of graphed data from GPS stations used by geoscientists who study crustal deformation and plate tectonics.

This can stand alone as an activity on graphing with earth science data, or it can be a prequel for the following EarthScope activities:

• Measuring plate motion with GPS: Iceland wherein students discover the sundering of Iceland by analyzing GPS data;
• Detecting Cascadia's changing shape with GPS a series of activities built around deformation of Earth's crust; and
• Episodic tremor and slip about unusual seismic activity in the Pacific Northwest.

Show Overview of EarthScope "Teaching Plate Tectonics with GPS" Curriculum Structure

Hide

Although each lesson can be taught on its own, these lessons are designed to be taught in sequence for maximum impact and learning.

×

Teaching Plate Tectonics with GPS - curriculum overview

Provenance: UNAVCO
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.

You can choose to assign some or all of this activity, depending on your goals and your students' needs. Overall, this activity starts with simple graphing of fictional data, builds to graphing real data from GPS stations in Washington and California as they gradually move north or south and east or west, and eventually leads students to create a map from which they can understand and derive GPS velocity vectors

The student exercise serves as the summative assessment for the activity. Some questions have clearly correct answers. Guidance is provided in the Teacher Guide for this lesson.

You can also end with a classroom discussion incorporating questions such as:

• What are the essential elements of a graph?
• How do geologists pay attention to scale? Why?
• Why are graphs a useful tool for geologists?
• What are geologists able to determine about a GPS station by graphing velocity vectors?
• What do you think geologists use velocity vectors from GPS stations for? What are they able to discover about the Earth (Geodesy)?

Explore More

For some GPS stations, time series graphs (e.g. North vs. Time) are easy to download online and they include a best-fit trend line drawn on them. Sometimes there are multiple trend lines if there are changes in the station's movement, such as after an earthquake.

You can find the time series graphs by turning on the 'Station Information' option on the GPS Velocity Viewer.