Plate Tectonics - Video and a Google Earth Lesson Plan

MinuteEarth recently published a new animated video about plate tectonics. The videos does a nice job of explaining how the movement of tectonic plates is measured. The video also illustrate the forces that cause tectonic plates to move. The video is embedded below.


After your students watch the video above you might want to use one of the featured projects on the Google Earth educator's page about plate tectonics. The lesson was developed by Cheryl Davis for 5th and 6th grade students. The lesson uses Google Earth to help students understand plate boundaries and plate subduction.

Earthquakes 101 for Kids

National Geographic Education's Forces of Nature has been featured here in the past. This afternoon I revisited that resource and discovered a couple of other nice resources for teaching elementary and middle school students about earthquakes.

Earthquakes 101 is a short video introduction to the causes of earthquakes. The video is accompanied by a vocabulary list, a few "fast facts," and some discussion questions. After showing the video use the National Geographic Map Maker to illustrate the relationship of tectonic plates, fault lines, and seismic activity. To create this illustration select "themes," then "physical systems - land," then select the earthquakes and plate tectonics layers. This combination will show the seismic activity layer on top of the colored plate tectonics layer.

Applications for Education
National Geographic's Map Maker can be used without creating an account. The example I gave above of using it for creating an illustration of the relationship between earthquakes and tectonic plates is one of many illustrations you and your students can create. National Geographic's Map Maker offers six themes on which users can create custom map displays. Within each theme there are subcategories to choose from. For example, you can select the theme Physical Systems Land then choose volcanic eruptions to display on your map. Map Maker also provides drawing tool and marker icons that you can place on your map