Utah Education Network
Uen: Tectonic Project
Learners will create a unique project to demonstrate their understanding of plate tectonics.
National Earth Science Teachers Association
Windows to the Universe: Snack Tectonics
Young scholars create a model using food that simulates the layering and movement of tectonic plates. Overheads are provided that demonstrate different ways to position the graham crackers, frosting, and fruit roll-ups to emulate how the...
Vision Learning
Visionlearning: Activity at Plate Boundaries
A simulation that demonstrates divergent plate boundaries and seafloor spreading. A focus is on evidence of the Earth's normal and reversed polarity over geologic time in the rock record.
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Plate Kinematics
For this activity, young scholars will observe and understand the basic kinematics of plate movement, how oceans are formed during continental rifting, and the relationship between plate geometry and tectonic data such as earthquakes,...
The Franklin Institute
The Franklin Institute: Clay Crash
Employ this lesson plan from The Franklin Institute to demonstrate plate tectonics and the effects. This is really just a short demonstration that could be incorporated into your existing lesson plan.
American Geosciences Institute
American Geosciences Institute: Earth Science Week: Model of a Normal Fault
Students construct a model that demonstrates how a block of rock is extended by a normal fault.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Drifting Continents
This activity is a teacher-led demonstration of continental drift and includes a math worksheet for students involving the calculation of continental drift over time. Students will understand what continental drift is, why it occurs, and...
Indiana University
Indiana University Bloomington: Foldable Fault Blocks [Pdf]
In this lesson, students will create three-dimensional (3-D) blocks out of paper to learn about the types of faulting that occur at the Earth's surface and its interior. Students will manipulate three fault blocks to demonstrate a normal...
Bill Nye
Bill Nye: Move Mountains
This tutorial from Bill Nye uses newspaper to show how tectonic plates can crush together to create mountains.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Earthquake Formation
Students learn about the structure of the earth and how an earthquake happens. In one activity, students make a model of the earth including all of its layers. In a teacher-led demonstration, students learn about continental drift. In...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Volcanic Panic!
Students learn about the causes, composition and types of volcanoes. They begin with an overview of the Earth's interior and how volcanoes form. Once students know about how a volcano functions, they learn how engineers predict...