Your Plate Tectonics Unit is one of those units where you can take something boring and old, i.e. rocks, and make it fun!  Let’s face it, plate tectonics is not an easy topic to teach because it’s not something you can show them in real-time. Field trip to see an active volcano? The Mid-Ocean Ridge? Maybe not. Here are some Plate Tectonics activities that will get your students excited about those rocks and how fascinating Earth’s geology is.

 

1. Show “The Continental Drift: Alfred Wegener Song” by the Amoeba People

Start your lesson with this music video and I promise you two things. 

 

1. Students will cringe at first and look at you like you’re a little crazy. 
2. By the end of the period, your students will be singing “Haha, Alfred Wegener!” to themselves. 

 

It happens every single year. But guess what? They remember Alfred Wegener, his Theory of Continental Drift, and what it was all about. It’s a silly, catchy song with a ton of good information in a story format.

 

2. Use Guided Notes for your Plate Tectonics Unit

This unit can be heavy on information and this lesson, guided notes and assessment will cover all the information needed to hit the MS-ESS2-3 and HS-ESS1-5 standards and then some. You can use this lesson in a Marine Science course and for Earth Science students. It includes all the essential information, an engagement piece at the beginning of the lesson, checkpoints throughout to maintain engagement, and a summary to complete the lesson. These notes are in Cornell Notes format to help students practice effective note-taking. 

Here are the topics included in the lesson:

 

• Big Bang Theory
• Earth’s Layers
• Continental Crust vs Oceanic Crust
• Plate Tectonics
• Theory of Continental Drift
• Sea Floor Spreading
• Mid-Ocean Ridges
• Alfred Wegener
• Pangea and Panthalassa
• Trenches
• Rifts
• Marine Sediments (lithogenous vs biogenous)
• Earth’s Magnetic Field and Magnetic Anomalies
• Carbon Dating
• Plate Boundaries (Convergent boundary, Transform boundary, Divergent boundary)

 

3. Plate Tectonics Edible Food Lab

Most middle school science students will tell you: that the best labs are food labs. This Plate Tectonics Edible Food Lab does not disappoint. For this lab, you will need graham crackers, fruit roll-ups, frosting, water, wax paper, and plastic knives. 

 

Students model the three different plate boundaries (transform, divergent, and convergent) using these materials. Graham crackers represent the continental crust as it is thick but not very dense. Fruit roll-ups represent the denser oceanic crust and the asthenosphere is represented by the viscous frosting. 

Students model each type of boundary by manipulating their materials to do so. As they model each of these movements, they have to describe the boundaries they represent and how they are evidenced on Earth. Check out the lab in action! 

 

The best part is the look on their faces when they have to dip their graham crackers into the water to create convergent boundaries. This is more of a gross part of the lab but I promise, it’s worth it when your students get to make mountains out of their graham crackers. It’s a lightbulb moment for them!

 

After it’s all said and done, you guessed it, the students get to eat. It’s a messy one, but an engaging one!

 

4. Model Plate Boundaries with clay or playdough

Don’t want the mess of food? Have students use clay or playdough to create 3D models of tectonic plate boundaries. They can refer to world maps and other scientific illustrations to help guide them. This helps students gain a more tactile understanding of the Earth’s tectonic plates and their boundaries. This is especially helpful for helping students model and understand the mid-ocean ridge.

 

5. Tectonic Plates Puzzle

Use this map of Pangea and cut it up into puzzle pieces that students have to put together in order to create the map of the original supercontinent. Give them some tips to help them reform the map and ask them questions along the way such as “what geological or biological evidence could support these two continents once being attached? It makes them really think!

 

You can add to this by showing students images or models of prehistoric animals and plants that existed when Pangea was intact. Have students cut out pictures of fossils and place them where they think they lived. This portion of the activity demonstrates how similar fossils are found on continents that were once connected.

 

6. Mid-Ocean Ridge Comic Strips

 

Have your students create comic strips that add a humorous element to your plate tectonics unit. In this activity, have your students create a comic strip that tells the story of the formation and the significance of the mid-ocean ridge. Students can do this on poster paper or even create a digital comic on PowerPoint or in Canva. This activity will encourage creativity while reinforcing students’ understanding of the processes associated with mid-ocean ridges.

 

7. Digital Google Slides Activities

These Plate Tectonics and Continental Drift Google Slides and Print Activities can be great for independent review or for whole-group instruction. This activity really helps to informally assess student’s knowledge of the topics with the unit. I have used this for test review, remediation and for having students explain their answers in more depth vs using recall with task cards.

 

8. Task Cards

Task cards are a quick, easy way to gauge student understanding of a topic. These plate tectonics and continental drift task cards will review concept like plate boundaries and ocean geography. These 24 Plate Tectonics and Continental Drift editable task cards can be used in a classroom or digitally for distance learning through Google Forms with no prep and they are self grading!

Grab an entire unit of Plate Tectonics activities here. You’ll get the PowerPoint lesson, guided notes, assessment, food lab, task cards, warm ups and the digital google slides/print activities.