Grade Level: 9th
Learning Standards:
Explain plate tectonics and how it accounts for
the locations of continents and oceans today. Explain the difference between diverging boundaries, sliding
boundaries, converging boundaries, and subduction boundaries.
Time Requirements:
PreVisit: 23 class periods; Visit: 23 hours, PostVisit:
12 class periods
Topics Covered by
Lesson:
Plate tectonics, evidence of plate tectonics, kind
of plate boundaries
During the 23 class periods before the lesson teach
the students about plate tectonics.
Discuss and elaborate on the evidence of plate tectonics, the placement
of the continents and oceans today and the different types of plate boundaries.
Worksheets, homework assignments, and handouts will
be helpful in reinforcing these concepts. You may also want to have a current flat map of the world today
along with maps that represent the position of the continents over millions
of years.
Prep the student’s on the layout of the hall
and what is expected of them when they arrive. Do not attempt to give a lot of directions when you arrive.
It will be very overwhelming for them!
Be sure that you have visited the Hall of Planet
Earth YOURSELF before you take your student’s there! Know what the hall contains and what the
student’s will be encountering. Based on your visit, create a worksheet on classification
to be distributed when you arrive at the museum. The worksheet should be site specific
with many answers being found only in the Hall. If you so choose, an excellent predesigned sheet on plate tectonics
is available from the museum through a teacher’s resource packet.
Student Learning
Prerequisites:
Students should have a basic understanding of the
location of the continents and oceans.
They should also be familiar with the different levels of the earth
beneath the earth’s crust.
Visit:
Distribute the sheets upon arrival to the museum.
Allow student’s the freedom to move about on their own, observing
and answering questions. Allow them to move around to other exhibits
within the hall after they have finished their sheet. You may want to give them an extra credit
assignment to complete.
Post Visit:
Go over the sheets with students when you return
to the classroom so they have a chance to ask questions and have closure. Review the entire section.
Have a class discussion or have the students work
ingroups to answer questions based on what they learned: If weathering and
erosion have been wearing away the Earth’s surface for hundreds and
millions of years, why are there any mountains left? Why hasn’t the Earth’s surface been worn away completely?
What fossil evidence exists to support plate tectonics?
How have positions of the landmasses changed over time? Are the continents fragments of one large
super continent?
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