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Elementary Science

Earth Science hands on activities

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Katie Henderson Katie Henderson 180 Points

Does anyone have a good hands on activity for tectonic plates?
Brittany Nicholson Brittany Nicholson 835 Points

Hi,

Here is an activity I found that would be great for the early elementary grades. It is hands-on, engaging, and teaches students the different tectonic plates and how they move. 

https://www.playdoughtoplato.com/graham-cracker-plate-tectonics/

Another idea is to teach students hand-motions. Check out this video that shows ways to teach students what the tectonic plates looked like, as well as what they create (mountains, volcanoes, etc.)! This would be useful for upper elementrary as they go a bit deeper into the study of tectonic plates. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3pEP2Z7By0
Cris DeWolf Cris DeWolf 11965 Points

Google “graham cracker tectonic”. There are several variations on how to use food to model the types of plate boundaries out there. 
Beverly DeVore-Wedding Bev Bev DeVore-Wedding 6148 Points

While this focuses on New  Zealand, you can modify this activity to any location on the planet: Tectonic Jigsaw Puzzle.

The NGSS@NSTA has a plate tectonic puzzle from the American Museum of Natural History as well. This activity shows the NGSS standardthat this aligns with as well. 

NOAA Ocean Explorer also has a 5-6th grade physical science lesson plan/acitivty you may find useful, called puzzle of the plates. 


A Teacher's Guide to the Geology of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is an excellent plate tectonics resource. I urchased my copy in 1998. There are activities related specifically to plate tectonoics as well as geology specific to Hawaii. 
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