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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Under My Feet

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders investigate the layers of the Earth, origin of tectonic plates and what happens when plates collide. They watch a video and use clay to demonstrate the different types of plate movement.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Continents on the Move

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students examine the tectonic plates of the Earth and how the landforms of Earth have changed position over time. In groups, they identify the evidence that the continents are still moving. To end the lesson, they practice measuring...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Continents Adrift

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students examine how tectonic plates change the Earth's land. In this geology lesson, students are divided into small groups to construct a continent puzzle. Students use transparency pieces to demonstrate how Africa and South America...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mantle Motions

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students define vocabulary words associated with lithospheric plate motions. They create and write down a motion to act out each vocabulary word, and participate in a game of demonstrating the actions associated with each word.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Plate Tectonics Boundaries

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Learners discover how to create a model of tectonic plates and study the interactions of these plates as they slowly move on the asthenosphere. They see and experience what happens at each type of plate boundary and why there are certain...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Plate Boundaries

For Teachers 6th - 8th
In this earth science worksheet, students examine the different processes that are involved in the movement of tectonic plates to cause earthquakes.
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Lesson Plan
Science Matters

Slip Sliding Along

For Teachers 6th Standards
The San Andreas Fault is the largest earthquake-producing fault in California. In the seventh instructional activity in the 20 part series, pupils create maps of California, focusing on the San Andreas Fault system. The comparison of...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Plate Tectonics: Movin' and Shakin'

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students are introduced to the causes of plate movements and the hazards they present. They plot the location of 50 earthquakes and 50 volcanic eruptions on a map and explore the relationships between plate tectonics, earthquakes, and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Floating Plates on the Earth

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders construct a concept map about Plate Tectonics. They include types of movement, names and effects of boundaries. They research plate tectonics, describe and name 3 types. They analyze the effect on the earth's surface of...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Islands, Reefs, and a Hotspot

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Students describe eight stages in the formation of islands in the Hawaiian archipelago. They examine the movement of tectonic plates in the Hawaiian archipelago region, and describe how plate movement produced the Hawaiian archipelago.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Hydrothermal Adventure

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Students analyze hydrothermal vents. For this hydrothermal vents lesson, students discover the effects of hydrothermal vents on tectonic plates. Students make model hydrothermal vents to understand how they form and operate.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Model of Three Faults

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Learners observe fault movements on model of the Earth's surface, find fault movements associated with different types of plate boundaries, research examples of non-plate boundary faults, and research and report on the types of faults...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Convection in a Pan

For Teachers 6th - 7th
Students explore convection. In this lesson on heat and energy, students investigate how heat moves in convection currents. They use their finding to better understand how convection currents effect the movement of tectonic plates.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Plate Tectonics

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students watch a video about plate tectonics. in this Earth Science lesson, students watch a video clip from Bill Nye about Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics. They make a slight crack in a hard boiled egg and manipulate the egg to...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Plate Tectonic Cycle

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students explore the Earth's movements by completing worksheets. In this plate tectonics lesson, students define such natural disasters as volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis and mudslides and discuss their connections to plate tectonics....
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Plate Tectonics

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Students examine plate tectonics and landforms.  For this plate tectonics lesson students complete an activity. Students practice drawing maps that show different fault lines and the land formations that were caused.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Plate Tectonics

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students identify that most of mountain ranges found on all major land masses and in the oceans are external reflections of tectonic movements within the earth. They identify that earthquakes and related phenomena are caused by the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Earth Egg

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students discuss plate tectonics and the layers of the earth's interior. They use eggs as models of the earth and answer questions regarding which part of the egg would represent which part of the earth.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Plate Tectonics

For Teachers 3rd - 10th
Young scholars identify the three layers of the earth: core, mantle and crust. They demonstrate knowledge of the concepts of convergent and divergent motions of the earth and an understanding of plate tectonics.
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Lesson Plan
Science Matters

Spaghetti Fault Model

For Teachers 6th Standards
Does increasing the pressure between two moving plates provide a stabilizing force or create more destruction? The hands-on lesson encourages exploration of strike-split fault models. The sixth lesson in a 20-part series asks scholars to...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Pangaea Puzzle: Exploring the Tectonic Forces That Shape the Earth

For Teachers 6th
Sixth graders follow in the footsteps of early scientists as they put the pieces of Pangaea back together and discovered the forces that create the variety of landforms and sea-floor features of our Earth.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Journey Through Earth

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students study plate tectonics.  In this plate tectonics instructional activity students build a cutaway scale model of the Earth. 
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

It's Not Your Fault

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers study the San Andreas Fault, calculate its movements, and compare the movements on both sides.  In this earthquake lesson students use the Internet to track movement, and calculate movement using a spreadsheet. 
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Earth Forces

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Learners use geological techniques such as plate tectonics, mountain building, earthquakes, and volcanoes, in order to explain the earth.