• NTTI Home
• Master Teachers
• Lesson Plans
• National NTTI

---

South Carolina ETV
1101 George Rogers Boulevard
Columbia, SC 29201-4761
Phone: 803-737-3545

Plate Tectonics (Grades 4-5)

Master Teacher

Tamara M. Stroman

Time Allotment

One 60-minute period

Overview

In this lesson, the students will participate in a series of hands-on, Web-based and video-based activities to examine the concept of plate tectonics. After completing the Introductory Activity, which is a hands-on puzzle, the students will view a video clip explaining plate tectonics. Following the video clip, the students will visit Web sites to review and enhance what they have learned about plate tectonics.

Subject Matter

Plate Tectonics

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

• Explain what theoretically caused the plates.
• Cite examples of what happens when plates collide or pull apart.

South Carolina Standards

(These Standards are available online at http://www.myscschools.com/offices/CSO.)

III.A.2.a—Identify that the lithosphere includes the crust and parts of the upper mantle, and is broken into large sections known as plates.

III.A.2.b—Recognize how plate movement produces volcanoes, earthquakes, and mountains on the ocean floor.

Media Components

Video

Continents Adrift: An Introduction to Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics

Clip—“Plate Tectonics.”This video clip, which runs one minute and 21 seconds, explains about the earth’s crust or shell being broken into plates that move. Most of the earth’s volcanoes and earthquakes are located on the boundaries of these plates.

To access this video clip, log on to your account at ETV’s StreamlineSC Web page (http://etv.streamlinesc.org). In the search by keyword box, type Continents Adrift and hit go. Click the title of the series and then download the video segment entitled “Plate Tectonics” to your desktop and preview it.

(Note to Teacher: If you don’t have an account with ETV’s StreamlineSC, check with your media specialist or Instructional Technologist about signing up for your own account.)

Web Site

Mountain Maker/Earth Shaker
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/tryit/tectonics/
This interactive activity lets you manipulate tectonic plates.

Materials

• Copies of the plate puzzle pieces for six groups of students.

Equipment

• Computer
• TV
• AverKey

Prep for Teachers

• Prior to teaching this lesson, bookmark the Web site used in the lesson on each computer in your classroom. If you don’t have the Shockwave plug-in on your computer or the students’, download it. It is available free on the Mountain Maker/Earth Shaker Web site.

• Download the video clip "Plate Tectonics" to your computer and preview it.

• Plate Puzzle Activity (Activity Sheet 1)

1. Xerox the plate puzzle six times. Each copy of the puzzle should be glued or pasted to construction paper (all the same color). Cut along plate boundaries, and then laminate the pieces.
2. Mix pieces from all six of the puzzles together and place randomly into six envelopes (try to get each group at least two identical pieces).
3. Divide students into six groups, the number of students in each group can vary from 3-5.

• When using media, provide students with a Focus for Media Interaction, a specific task to complete and/or information to identify during or after viewing of video segments, Web sites, or other multimedia elements.

Introductory Activity

Step 1: Distribute one envelope containing puzzle pieces to each group. Stress that this activity does not allow any talking, asking for material, or taking any puzzle pieces that are not first offered to you.

Step 2: Say to students: "Your group is to complete a puzzle. The envelope contains pieces of the puzzle, but it does not contain all of the pieces needed to complete the puzzle. Your group will have many of some pieces, and not have any of the other pieces. In order to complete this activity, your group must obtain all pieces necessary to complete the puzzle, and have no pieces left over (extras must be given away to other groups)."

Step 3: Again, repeat the rules for this activity:

• No talking, either within your group or between groups.
• You cannot take a piece away from any other group.
• You can give away pieces that you do not need.
• No begging, pointing, or otherwise indicating that you need a particular piece.

(Note to Teacher: This is a cooperative and competitive learning activity.)

Learning Activities

Step 1: Explain to your students that they will be examining the concept of plate tectonics. Pull up the video clip "Plate Tectonics" on your computer screen. (Note to Teacher: It is best to already have it minimized on your computer screen and to have your computer hooked up to the TV using an AverKey converter.)

Step 2: Direct the students’ attention to the board. Tell them to copy down the three questions on the board. They are:

1. What do the dots that the scientists were connecting represent?
2. What was the area called where most of the dots were located by the scientists?
3. What is the name of the theory that describes plate movement?

Step 3: Provide students with a Focus for Media Interaction by telling them to look for the answers to these three questions as they watch the video clip. Instruct them to write their answers down.

Step 4: START the clip and PAUSE after you hear "Dots were the location of recent worldwide earthquakes," and when you see a flat "map-like" model of the world. Instruct the students to write down the answer to the first question (earthquakes) and discuss it.

Step 5: PLAY the video again and PAUSE when you hear "Many earthquakes occur on or near the mid-ocean ridge" and when you see the flat "map-like" model of the world with tiny dots mostly in a central location. Tell students to write down the answer to the second question (mid-ocean ridge) and discuss it.

Step 6: BEGIN the video again and PAUSE it when you hear "scientists called these pieces plate tectonics," and when you see the words "Plate Tectonics" across the "map-like" model of the world. Have students write down the answer to the final question (plate tectonics) and discuss it.

Culminating Activity

Step 1: Go to Mountain Maker/Earth Shaker Web site at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/tryit/tectonics/.

Step 2: Click on "Plate Tectonics activity" at the upper section of the page.

Step 3: After clicking on "Plate Tectonics," a small screen will pop-up for the "Mountain Maker, Earth Shaker" activity. Enlarge the screen by clicking on the maximize icon at the top of the screen in between the minimize icon and the close icon.

Step 4: Once the screen has been maximized, read the introductory paragraph, position your cursor over one of the plates shown at the top of the screen. Depress your mouse button once you have placed the cursor over one of the arrows. Then drag the plate in the direction of the arrow. As you drag the plate, watch the image below it to show what happens when that plate moves and look at the map next to the paragraph to see in what areas this happens.

Every time you move an arrow, a paragraph about that plate appears next to the map. Provide students with a Focus for Media Interaction by telling them to choose a boundary (Boundaries—Collisional, Convergent, Divergent, and Transform) represented by the arrows and tell what happens during this or what causes it. This information will come up when you move the plate in the direction of the arrow.

If you want even more information about that plate after you’ve moved the arrow, click on the underlined plate title at the end of the paragraph, then close the window.

(Note to Teacher: This activity can be done in groups, in a computer lab setting or shown on the TV using an AverKey.)

Cross-Curricular Extensions

Social Studies: Students can research Harry Hess, Arthur Holmes, and Alfred Wegener at the following People and Discoveries Web sites.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bohess.html, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/boholm.html,
or http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bowege.html

These men all played an important role in different findings about plate tectonics. You could have a group discussion on each person.

Language Arts: Have the students choose one of the men mentioned in the Social Studies extension and ask them to write a report on how or what that person added to the theory of plate tectonics.

Community Connections

• Invite a professor of geology or geologist in to talk with the students about what they do and how they use plate tectonics.

• Invite parents in and have the students present what they have learned on plate tectonics.

Student Materials

An envelope containing the puzzle pieces.

Activity Sheet (PDF)

Activity Sheet 1: Plate Puzzle Activity