Sort out the cards to create a square by matching processes of the rock cycle to their description.
Learning goals: Knowledge: Be able to explain why tectonic plates move and describe some evidence for this. Skill: Problem solving and fact-finding!
Tectonic plates are large pieces of the Earth’s crust that move a few cms every year
Why do tectonic plates move?
Plates have boundaries with other plates
Correctly fill in the table below each picture of a plate boundary to describe the properties of each boundary.
It was once thought that mountains formed because the Earth was shrinking
We now know differently!
Alfred Wegener was a German scientist who proposed the theory of continental drift in He hypothesized that the continents were slowly drifting around the Earth. However, Wegener was unable to explain why, which meant that his hypothesis was not accepted until the 1950s, when numerous discoveries provided evidence of continental drift.
What was the evidence?
Pangaea – a supercontinent
Similar fossils have been found in South America & South Africa
Similar rock layers been found in South America & South Africa
Create Pangaea from your tectonic plate jigsaw. Around your completed jigsaw describe the evidence that continents were once joined.
Wegener’s theory wasn’t accepted for many years! Bad times!
You are a fellow scientist who thinks Wegener is a numpty. Write a letter to a friend outlining why you think Wegener theory of continental drift is complete hogwash.