are welcome to use these ideas in your classroom, within your science
department, within your school district, or to distribute to any
teacher who may find these lessons useful.I only ask that: 1. You cannot sell these lessons or make a profit on them in any way. 2. You cite the lessons original source, and do not white-out the copyright footer on the pdf files 3. Do not copy and paste lessons onto your website. A link to the original is to be used. 4. Do not claim these lessons as your own work. NOTE: This disclaimer is modeled after a couple of my favorite websites: The Science Spot and Middle School Science. Thanks, teachers!
(There are other blog entries related to Teaching Plate Tectonics.
Click on the Plate Tectonics label on the right!)
I used to think
having a study
guide to base your
lesson on was a good thing. I don't anymore. There are scads of
better ways to introduce material. I prefer to use PowerPoints with FollowSheets,
Cut-and-Paste FactSheets, or a puzzle of some sort. If you are
wanting to use a Study Guide, click
for my version.
Answer" White Board Team Game
Review parts of
the Study Guide, FactSheet, or PowerPoint by
putting students into small teams. (I use six or seven "Color" teams.)
Each team uses a white board to
answer a teacher question. They keep their white boards hidden until
the teachers says, "Show Me the Answer!" Then they raise them high.
Every team gets a point if correct. Great fun!
is consistently my students' favorite Foldable because it is DIFFICULT
to make and they take it on as a challenge! The process of making this
Foldable teaches the concepts! Especially if you
have them use it
to answer the accompanying worksheet questions.
Click here for this PowerPoint. It coordinates with the above Foldable and
Questions. Great follow-up after your students have made the Foldable
and answered the questions. Make sure they have their foldable out
during the PPT and are looking at each corresponding layer. REMEMBER:
Students don't learn concepts by MAKING
the Foldable alone but by USING
the Foldable, THINKING
about the Foldable!!
achievement test always
asks a "Wegener's evidence" question. There are several versions of
good Continental Drift Labs available. I would recommend a hands-on lab
where the students cut out the continents and assemble Pangaea using
the evidence on each plate. Click
for my version, minus the copyrighted plate images. Another
way to do
this lab is to provide your students
continents/plates and have them color in the evidence from
textbook/booklets, etc. Then assemble Pangaea using the evidence.
Click Here for a great activity called Plate Tectonics Puzzle from the American Museum of Natural History.
I use one
prepared by my textbook
here for a simple version. I ask my students to color and
7 major plates, and label the minor
here for some "basic" questions to answer.
a Cut-and-Paste Vocabulary Worksheet.