E-learning for Kids
E Learning for Kids: Madagascar: What Are Tectonic Plates and How Are They Moving?
This lesson teaches students about tectonic plates, plate boundaries, and their role in earthquakes and volcanoes.
American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History: O Logy: Plates on the Move
Find an interrelated set of tools--maps, animations, diagrams, photographs, and text--to help you understand tectonic plates and how they move.
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Plix: Map for Earth's Tectonic Plates: Earth's Tectonic Plates
[Free Registration/Login Required] Understand what is happening at the plate boundaries with this interactive map of Earth's tectonic plates. This page slso includes a short quiz over plate tectonics.
American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History: Plates on the Move
Explore how plates move with this interactive site. Students choose locations on the map of Earth to see if the tectonics plate are slipping, spreading, colliding, or subducting.
National Geographic
National Geographic: Plate Tectonics
A short tutorial on plate tectonics. Includes a video, background reading, three questions, fast facts, and a vocabulary list. Discusses the publication of the Tharp-Heezen map of the seafloor in 1977 which paved the way for a much...
American Geosciences Institute
American Geosciences Institute: Earth Science Week: Mapping Quake Risk
Learners use GIS to observe worldwide patterns of earthquakes and volcanoes and analyze the relationships of those patterns to tectonic plate boundaries. Then they identify cities at risk.
National Association of Geoscience Teachers
Nagt: Geology Map Observations
In jigsaw groups, students construct the Earth's tectonic plates using geologic maps. Skills such as careful observation, presentation, and synthesis are used to create a map that shows the type and location the plates.
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Analyzing Plate Motion Using Earth Scope Gps Data
In this chapter, you will access Global Positioning System (GPS) data from the Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO) and analyze the data in a spreadsheet to measure the motion of GPS stations in the Pacific Northwest. From your analyses, you...
US Geological Survey
Usgs: Major Tectonic Plates of the Earth
A map of major tectonic plates of the Earth showing where the Eurasian and Indo-Australian plates are located.
Concord Consortium
Concord Consortium: Exploring Earth's Seismicity
This sequence is an introduction to plate tectonics using evidence from topographical maps, earthquake location and depth, and volcano location using the Seismic Explorer model to investigate patterns of earthquake data and to infer the...
Other
Nevada Seismological Laboratory: Plate Tectonics, the Cause of Earthquakes
This site contains an in-depth explanation of the causes of earthquakes as they relate to plate tectonics, and also has many nice and easy to read pictures, maps, and diagrams of plate tectonics and earthquakes.
Extreme Science
Extreme Science: A Lesson in Plate Tectonics
With its clickable map, this site provides text and graphics on spreading boundary, converging boundary, subduction zone, transverse boundaries and faults.
National Association of Geoscience Teachers
Nagt: Discovering Plate Boundaries
Students work collaboratively using data maps to discover plate tectonic boundary processes. Data sets used are earthquakes, volcanoes, seafloor age, and topography.
Curated OER
National Park Service: What on Earth Is Plate Tectonics?
An easy-to-understand explanation of what plate tectonics is. Contains information about the inner parts of the Earth, the difference between the three types of plates, and numerous maps and illustrations.
Vision Learning
Visionlearning: Plate Tectonics: The Origin of Plate Tectonic Theory
Discover Alfred Wegner's ideas relating to continental drift and seafloor spreading which are both evidence to the concept of plate tectonics.
US Geological Survey
Usgs: Plate Tectonics, Hot Spots, and Ring of Fire: World Map
A world map featuring active volcanoes, plate tectonics, hot spots, and ring of fire.
American Geosciences Institute
American Geosciences Institute: Earth Science Week: Geologic Maps & Earthquakes
This activity is designed to give learners practice using a geologic map to assess the likelihood and location of a particular natural hazard- earthquakes- in California.
Curated OER
Merriam Webster: Visual Dictionary Online: Tectonic Plates
Labeled map showing locations of world's tectonic plates.
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Ring of Fire 2: What Earthquakes Tell Us About Plate Tectonics
The theory of plate tectonics revolutionized geology in the 1960's. In this project you can explore the connection between plate tectonics and earthquakes by mapping historical seismic data.
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Ring of Fire 1: What Volcanoes Tell Us About Plate Tectonics
The Ring of Fire is a region of volcanic and earthquake activity that surrounds the Pacific Ocean. In this project you can explore the connection between plate tectonics and volcanic activity by mapping historical data.
Other
University of Delaware: Plate Tectonics
This site is a very simple overview of plate tectonics. It includes a map of all the major plates and a diagram of the layers of the earth.
Enchanted Learning
Enchanted Learning: All About Plate Tectonics
Simple discussion of plate tectonics and Pangaea. Includes maps and interactives.
University of Illinois
University of Illinois Urbana Champaign: About Antarctica: Plate Tectonics
Explanation of why Antarctica has fossils of ferns, amphibians, and reptiles. Gondwanaland is discussed and shown in an interactive map.
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: A Data Rich Exercise for Discovering Plate Boundary Processes
This article in the Journal of Geoscience Education describes a classroom exercise based on four world maps containing earthquake, volcano, topographical and seafloor age data. Students participate in this exercise by using a "jigsaw"...