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    PDF - Continental Drift Activity

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    1) The document provides background and instructions for a lab activity on continental drift where students will cut out and reconstruct the supercontinent Pangaea from maps showing the matching coastlines and geological evidence of the separated continents. 2) Students are asked to cut out and glue the individual continents onto a sheet of paper to form the best possible reconstruction of the ancient supercontinent Pangaea based on clues from fossil matches and matching mountain chains across continents. 3) The activity has students complete this reconstruction twice, with the second map including the continental shelves to further demonstrate how the continents were once joined together.

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    PDF - Continental Drift Activity

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    1) The document provides background and instructions for a lab activity on continental drift where students will cut out and reconstruct the supercontinent Pangaea from maps showing the matching coastlines and geological evidence of the separated continents. 2) Students are asked to cut out and glue the individual continents onto a sheet of paper to form the best possible reconstruction of the ancient supercontinent Pangaea based on clues from fossil matches and matching mountain chains across continents. 3) The activity has students complete this reconstruction twice, with the second map including the continental shelves to further demonstrate how the continents were once joined together.

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    1) The document provides background and instructions for a lab activity on continental drift where students will cut out and reconstruct the supercontinent Pangaea from maps showing the matching coastlines and geological evidence of the separated continents. 2) Students are asked to cut out and glue the individual continents onto a sheet of paper to form the best possible reconstruction of the ancient supercontinent Pangaea based on clues from fossil matches and matching mountain chains across continents. 3) The activity has students complete this reconstruction twice, with the second map including the continental shelves to further demonstrate how the continents were once joined together.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    676 views3 pages

    PDF - Continental Drift Activity

    Uploaded by

    api-205313794
    1) The document provides background and instructions for a lab activity on continental drift where students will cut out and reconstruct the supercontinent Pangaea from maps showing the matching coastlines and geological evidence of the separated continents. 2) Students are asked to cut out and glue the individual continents onto a sheet of paper to form the best possible reconstruction of the ancient supercontinent Pangaea based on clues from fossil matches and matching mountain chains across continents. 3) The activity has students complete this reconstruction twice, with the second map including the continental shelves to further demonstrate how the continents were once joined together.

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    Name ___________________________

    Date _________ Period 1 2 3 4 5 6

    Marine Biology Lab Activity: Continental Drift


    Background: When people made the first maps of the new world, the puzzlelike fit of the American and the
    European/African coastlines seemed more than a coincidence. Some intellectuals suggested that perhaps the
    continents might have been connected at one time, but few accepted this. Why? Because if the continents were
    connected at one time, then they had to have moved. Based on their senses, most people concluded that it is
    impossible for a continent to move.
    In 1915, Alfred Wegener proposed that about 300 million years ago the continents had formed a single
    mass, called Pangaea (from the Greek for all the Earth). Pangaea had split, and its pieces had been moving away
    from each other ever since.
    Today, scientists accept that continents move due to tectonic plate motion. Advanced scientific instruments
    and measurement prove the landmasses are moving. The evidence for tectonic plate motion was radical in the early
    and mid-twentieth century. Many in the scientific community of the day criticized it, yet today it is the accepted
    view by mainstream science.
    Purpose: To learn about the Continental Drift Theory and the evidence that supports it.
    Materials: glue sticks, scissors, map with continental shelves, map without continental shelves
    Procedure:
    1. Examine Map 1 carefully. Look at the coded areas on the map that shows fossil and geological
    evidence found on the landmasses. The fossil remains provide you with hints as to how to put the
    continents together. In addition to the fossil evidence is a coded area that shows mountain chains that
    have the same geology from one continent to another. You will use these coded hints, as well as the
    obvious coastline shapes, to combine the continents together to obtain the best possible fit. This will
    form one large supercontinent.
    2. Being as accurate as you can, cut out the continents from Map 1. You will have 6 large continental
    landmasses, plus the Indian Subcontinent, the island of Madagascar, and the island of Greenland.
    3. Once you have worked out the best possible fit, glue the pieces to the back of this paper.
    *You will not get a perfect fit. Even Wegener did not get a perfect fit, so you are in good company!
    4. When you combine the continents together some will overlap. This is acceptable, especially with
    Greenland and Europe.
    5. When you are finished with your first Pangaea map, begin your second. The second map youll
    construct for this activity is similar to the first, with one exception. Your second map has the
    continental shelves shown along with the continents, plus the fossil and geological hints.

    Questions:
    1. What do you feel is the most compelling evidence that the continents were once linked together?
    2. Why do the continents fit together better with todays knowledge than in Wegeners time?
    3. Based on the apparent movement of the continents from Pangaea to today, what can you infer about the
    size of the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean basins at some time in the future?
    4. What ocean scanning technology, developed during Wegeners time, could have produced data to
    support his Theory of Continental Drift?

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