Plate tectonics lab questions divergent plate boundary discussion questions 1. Plate tectonics graham cracker lab by science station tpt. There are three types of plate boundaries or zones, each of which features a different type of plate interaction. Plate tectonics pieces of map showing movement of plates great idea even for regular education activity splitting up earth along the tectonic plate boundaries. This quick and tasty kids science activity gives little scientists a hands on way to explore plate tectonics the movement of the earths crust that leads to the. Dip one end of each of the two graham crackers two centimeter one inch into a cup of water. Students illustrate what happens during each recreation being sure to label each geological term appropriately. This video walks through the gram cracker plate tectonics lab. Learn how earths tectonic plates interact in this delicious activity. Wax paper, graham crackers, rice crispy treats, water, plastic knives academic vocabulary. I make three piles when i go through the exit tickets. In this simple activity, students will model each of the different types of interactions at plate boundaries.
The purpose of this lab is to demonstrate interactions of plate boundaries. Each pair of students will need the following materials. Plate tectonics suggests that large features on earths surface, such as continents, ocean basins, and mountain ranges, result from interactions along the edges of large plates of earths outer shell. They complete the exit ticket and i check them later. Dec 04, 2016 to model tectonic plate boundaries, students will use graham crackers to represent earths lithosphere and pudding to represent the flowing asthenosphere upper mantle. Handson activities for teaching landforms grade school. The icing represents the molten rock in the earths mantle and the graham crackers represent the tectonic plates. If you are low on cash, stick with procedure and skip the rice crispies. Graham cracker plate tectonics plate tectonics, earth science. Plate movement directly affects the destruction of earths surface because the more dense plates sink causing a trench where the plates are thoroughly destroyed. One pile is for those students who get 100% correct like the following two examples. Handson activities for teaching landforms grade school giggles. Place one edge of both crackers into the glass of water for just a few seconds.
Print a copy of the landforms slides or have them ready on your computer to. Kimberly miller printed on 12215 edible plate tectonics page 6 converging oceanic or oceanic and continental plates graham cracker and fruit rollup or two fruit rollups moving toward one another creating a subduction zone. Dip the ends of two of your graham crackers in the water. At the plate boundaries, plates may converge collide, diverge separate, or slide past each other transform boundary. In this plate tectonics worksheet, students use graham crackers, frosting, water and a paper. Graham cracker plate tectonics this quick and tasty kids science activity gives little scientists a hands on way to explore plate tectonics the movement of the earths crust that leads to the formation of volcanoes, mountains, and oceanic trenches. Place the crackers onto the frosting with wet edges next to each other. This is how mountains are made at convergent plate boundaries. What is the process that creates new ocean floor from diverging plates.
These plates ride on the hot plastic upper mantle called the asthenosphere. Place one hand on each of the graham cracker pieces and push them together by applying steady, moderate pressure. In this activity, ocean plates are represented by fruit roll ups and continental crust is represented by graham crackers. Name a specific location on the earth where this kind of boundary activity takes place. Which movement from your plate tectonics boundary graphic organizer causes a rift valley to form. If you have allergies in your class you can use nutella or caramel or something else. Convergent places where plates crash or push together. Buy wax paper, knives, frosting, fruit rollups, and graham crackers. Once the graham crackers have touched each other, note.
You can see ld putting the continent and ocean onto his plate ie. This is an awesome upper elementarymiddle school lab that uses graham crackers and cool whip to represent tectonic plates. Take two graham cracker pieces and lay the two pieces side by side on top of the frosting so they are touching. In the data section, draw a crosssection diagram to show what this continentalcontinental convergent boundary looks like. Model the formation of mountains in sweet treat form. At plate boundaries, plates may converge come together, diverge move apart or slip past each other in a horizontal motion. Make sure that the edges of your graham crackers that touch are the ends you dipped into the water. Graham crackers and whipped cream combine to make a fun, tasty science experiment. Earths surface is broken into 12 major tectonic plates. We respread the frosting asthenosphere, and demonstrate the convergence of oceanic crust and continental crust using the graham cracker oceanic and rice crispy treat continental. Gently put the wet cracker section and a dry cracker section on the layer of frosting. Observe the edges of the graham crackers where they are colliding.
As they finish, allow students to choose a type of boundary to imitate with their graham crackers and have their partner guess what type of boundary they are creating. I provide each student with a paper plate and a large scoop of peanut butter on it. Jul 06, 2017 this video walks through the gram cracker plate tectonics lab. To study the interactions of the tectonic plates as they move slowly on the asthenosphere. Have students slowly push the crackers together so. Once the graham crackers have touched each other, note how the marshmallow spreading is a different shape than it was at the start of the experiment.
This activity is a slight variation on an original activity, discovering plate boundaries, developed by dale sawyer at rice university. To model the interactions of earths tectonic plates as they move about its surface. Reuse the graham cracker used above for this activity. Slowly push the graham crackers towards each other. Plate movement directly affects the construction of earths surface because the land recycles and creates new crust by divergent plates. Students could have to decide where the most plate activity happened, whether mountainstrenches would form based on direction, label existing geographic features on it, etc. Materials 2 whole graham crackers wax paper 1 rice krispy treat frosting cup of water plastic. Push your graham crackers together and watch what happens. This theory also says that most of these plates are in. Use your observations to answer questions 1 and 2 on your what you discovered worksheet. Again, model the plate movement on top of the frosting. Convergent plate boundaries continental mountainscontinental collison procedure a.
What happens to the wet ends of the graham crackers. Questionanswer slides after steps to check for student understanding. Model the plates movements using frosting and graham crackers to understand how earths landscape can change over time. Have students look over their plate tectonics chart to ensure they have completed each of the entries.
Graham cracker plate tectonics earth science activities. The purpose of this lab is to demonstrate the different types of interactions at plate boundaries. Google graham cracker plate tectonics lab for a variety of different versions used by schools across the country. Graham cracker plate tectonics playdough to plato teach kids about plate tectonics with graham crackers and cool whip. In this windows to the universe activity, students use these items to model the.
Drag the graham crackers apart and observe what happens with the whipped cream and graham crackers. Part 2 convergent plate boundaries continental and oceanic. Exploring the movement of tectonic plates with smores. I give them a spoon to smooth out the peanut butter on the plate. The theory of plate tectonics states that the crust of the earth is composed of seven major plates and numerous smaller plates. Cool whip and graham crackers plate tectonics lab activity. Place the graham crackers on opposite sides of the plate. Convergent, places where plates crash or push together. Stepbystep powerpoint for both you and your students total of 7 steps, pictures of student expectations is included. To identify and demonstrate the forces that shape the features of the earth 2. This graham cracker plate tectonics lesson plan is suitable for 7th 10th grade. Give each pair of students one long graham cracker broken in half. This quick and tasty kids science activitygives little scientists a hands o teaching explore weather vocabulary with preschool and.
This theory also says that most of these plates are in motion, creating. Demonstrate plate tectonics with graham crackers and. To represent the natural world by creating models and analyzing their limitations. Plate boundary description landformsfeatures materials. Modeling how the shifting of plate tectonics affects the topography of earth.
Activity splitting up earth along the tectonic plate boundaries. Love the whole activity, especially the convergent boundary. The others are convergent boundaries where plates collide and divergent boundaries where plates split apart. This quick and tasty kids science activitygives little scientists a hands o teaching explore weather vocabulary with preschool and kindergarten students with this free printable weather board game from playdough to plato. How do wet crackers act more like real plates than dry crackers. Graham cracker plate tectonics lab just a little info the theory of plate tectonics states that the crust of the earth is composed of seven major plates and numerous smaller plates. Give each kid two graham cracker halves and a plate covered in a thick smear of icing. Movements deep within the earth, which carry heat from the hot interior to the cooler surface, cause the plates to move very slowly on the surface, about 2 inches per year on average. To model tectonic plate boundaries, students will use graham crackers to represent earths lithosphere and pudding to represent the flowing asthenosphere upper mantle. Schaefer the theory of plate tectonics states that the crust of the earth is composed of 7 major plates and numerous smaller plates.
Dec 04, 2011 place the graham crackers on opposite sides of the plate. What can you do with fruit rollups, graham crackers and frosting in your science class. For the mesh or screen, a roll of no slip shelf liner works well. Diverging continental plates graham crackers moving away from one another. Plate boundaries are found at the edge of the plates.
Observe what is happening to the marshmallow spread. We read about the plates and tectonic plate movement and looked carefully at this map. Transform continental plates or oceanic plates graham crackers or. This is another fun activity with a sweet treat reward at the end. Graham cracker tectonics this is another fun activity with a sweet treat reward at the end. This process that creates new ocean floor from diverging plates is seafloor spreading.
Dip one end of each of the two graham crackers into a cup of water. In this plate tectonics worksheet, students use graham crackers, frosting, water and a paper plate to simulate tectonic processes such as convergent, divergent and transforming plate boundaries. One sheet of graham cracker 4 crackers graham cracker continental crust. Move the crackers back and forth against each other. The theory also states that the motion of these plates creates a variety of interactions at the plate boundaries. Every ten seconds, push the graham crackers closer to each other. Materials graham crackers rice krispy treat frostingmarshmallow fluff. Part three convergent plate boundaries continental and continental break the graham cracker into four pieces use only two and save the remaining two pieces of graham cracker for part four. I have copied the picture and information for continental drift front to back, and the picture and information for plate tectonics front to back. Spread a thick layer of frosting on the paper plate. Graham cracker model of plate tectonics miss hernandez.
The theory of plate tectonics states that the crust of the earth is composed of 16 major pieces or plates. Young scholars recreate three types of plate boundaries using graham crackers, fruit roll, and frosting. These plates ride on the hot plastic upper mantle known as the asthenosphere. Microsoft word graham cracker plate tectonics lab activity. These plates move on the top of the hot plastic upper mantle known as the asthenosphere. For this activity, i grabbed a box of graham crackers, some cool whip, and a plate. At the boundaries between the plates, the plates may collide, diverge, subduct, or slip past one another. Copy of the plate tectonic exit ticket for each student.
Edible plate tectonics divergent, convergent, and transform. Students will use shaving cream and graham crackers to simulate the three types of plate boundaries transform, divergent, and convergent. I made different maps, including more detail in all of the datasets, and used a different map projection, but otherwise the general progression of the activity is the same. Break one whole graham cracker into two square pieces by following the perforations. Next, direct the kids to imitate different types of boundaries. Oreo cookie plate tectonics kyrene school district. Dip one end of each of the two graham crackers two centimeters into a cup of water. Model the plates movements using frosting and graham crackers to understand how earths landscape can. This activity can be done using edible ingredients like graham crackers or cookies for plates and cool whip or pudding for magma.
You want to soften the ends, but you do not want them to start falling apart. What feature do the resulting ends of the wet crackers. Finally we used our last graham crackers to make a subduction zone what happens when a more dense oceanic plate is thrust under a less dense continental plate. In addition, some plates may appear to be inactive.
The theory also states that the motion of these plates. The soft graham crackers slowly folded up on each and mountains were formed. At the plate boundaries, plates may converge collide, diverge separate, or slide past each other in a lateral motion. In addition, some plates may appear to be inactivity. In this windows to the universe activity, students use these items to model the different types of plate boundaries. This time move your graham crackers so that their edges rub against each other. Then i move on to the two different convergent plate boundary activities. Give each student a paper plate covered in frosting and several graham cracker squares. To understand how plate boundaries interact with each other and the features created as they drift atop the slow moving asthenosphere. A specific location for this kind of boundary is north america and eurasian.
Each piece of graham cracker represents a continental plate. California demonstrate plate tectonics with graham crackers and frosting. Plate movements introduction the theory of plate tectonics states that the crust of the earth is composed of less than twenty separate plates that float on the hot plastic mantle of the inner earth. This lab allows students to fully understand the three types of plate boundaries convergent, divergent, and transform as well as subduction. What happened to the frosting between the crackers. Graham cracker plate tectonics lesson plan for 7th 10th. Dec 17, 2018 however, the version i prefer includes the use of a rice crispy treat to illustrate oceanic vs. Model the plates movements using frosting and graham crackers to. Break the graham cracker into four pieces use only two and save the remaining two pieces of graham cracker for the next section. Just a little info the theory of plate tectonics states that the crust of the earth is composed of seven major plates and. Jan 29, 2015 at the plate boundaries, plates may converge collide, diverge separate, or slide past each other transform boundary. As students are enjoying the plate tectonic treat, i pass out the plate tectonic exit ticket to each student. Give each student a paper plate covered in frosting and several.