Moving Tectonic Plates

Lab Brief #3

🎯 Your mission

Understand the idea. Then look for it everywhere.

⚡ The twist

The slowest changes are the biggest ones.

What you'll learn

Tectonic plates are huge slabs of Earth's crust that float on the mantle. Where plates meet, earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain building occur.

Key words

tectonic plates
The giant slabs of rock that make up Earth's surface.
volcano
A mountain where hot melted rock can burst out of the Earth.

Make a hypothesis first

Predict: which will erode faster?

Say your guess out loud — then find out if you were right.

Step 1 of 4 · Read

Look at the vocabulary words and write a definition for each in your own words.

Step 2 of 4 · Do

Model plate tectonics using graham crackers on frosting. Push them together, pull them apart, and slide them past each other to show convergent, divergent, and transform boundaries.

Step 3 of 4 · Observe

Observe what happens and describe it in detail.

Step 4 of 4 · Record

Record your observations in your science journal with measurements and descriptions.

Question 1 of 3

What are tectonic plates?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 2 of 3

What forms when tectonic plates collide?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 3 of 3

Which layer of Earth is the thinnest?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Mind = blown

🪨 Every grain of sand on every beach used to be a mountain.

Nice work!

You got 0 of 3 right.

Next: Ocean Currents and Climate All lessons

🎯

Next Smart Experiment

We'll pick an experiment that matches exactly how you're thinking right now.

✨ More to explore

🌍 Where you see this in real life: This is shaping the ground you walk on, slowly, every single day.

🏆 Stretch challenge (try it this week): Find a rock outside and try to guess how old it is.

👨‍👩‍👧 For the dinner table: “What's the slowest change you can think of?”

🌎Share card

Share this experiment

Send it to a parent who's looking for a 10-minute kitchen science win.

Moving Tectonic Plates

Next Smart Experiment

Share this experiment

Moving Tectonic Plates

Done with science? Try something else

Your Cart (0)