Summary
There's a continent called Pangaea?! Well, there <i>once</i> was. Hundreds of millions of years ago, Earth looked completely different from how it does today. All of the land was packed into a single supercontinent. Geologist Alfred Wegener theorized that this giant landmass split into chunks and slowly drifted apart. Rejected at first by the scientific community, Wegener's theory of continental drift eventually was proved correct: The Earth's crust is split up into dozens of pieces called tectonic plates, which "float" on top of the mantle. Warmed by the blazing-hot core, the mantle churns in circular convection currents, dragging tectonic plates along for the ride. Today, plate tectonics is the unifying theory of the entire field of geology. It explains the rock cycle, the origin of Earth's surface features, and the cause of seismic activity, such as earthquakes and volcanoes. Get the drift? Watch this movie to learn more!
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Teaching resources
Discussion questions
A few questions to talk through after watching Plate Tectonics:
- What is one new thing you learned about plate tectonics?
- Can you explain it to a partner in your own words?
- Where might you see this in the real world?
- What is one question you still have?
Quick work-a-long
Try it:
- Write one sentence explaining plate tectonics.
- Draw or give one example of your own.