Did you know that scientist believe that the Earth’s continents were once one giant big one? Scientist call it Pangaea. The Earth’s outer most layer, the crust, is broken up into many different sections called plates. This plates move around as it “floats” on top of the liquid magma. As these plates move around, so to the continents that sit on top of the crust.
Being that the Earth is so huge and imaging a moving Earth can be quite hard, the 4th graders used a smaller model, an EGG. Pretending that the Earth is the egg and the outer shell is the crust, students gently created plates by cracking the shell. Using a marker, students outlines the cracks, which is now representing the Earth’s plates.
Students were then asked to gently squeeze the egg shell to see what happens when plates move around. What do you think happens when the shell is squeezed? Ask a fourth grader and see what they learned.
