Essential Questions:

• How has the surface of our planet changed over time?
• What clues are provided to show that the surface of our planet has changed?

Materials (per 2-3 students): I make these ahead of time to save time in class and I can reuse them for each class.

• Foam Board
• Glue stick
• Disposable scalpel or sharp craft knife
• USGS landmasses (Pangaea activity PDF)
• Blue construction paper
• Ziptop bag

Procedures:

Preparation

1. Print out and glue landmasses to a piece of foam board
2. Carefully cut out each land mass and fossil key
3. Place into zip-top bag

Class Activity

1. Have students place the landmasses into their current geographic positions on top of the blue construction paper.
2. What do they notice about the landmasses? Discuss.
3. Ask students: “Do you think you can make one large landmass using the clues provided?”
4. After a few minutes, check on their progress, what did they do first? What was giving them difficultly? Encourage students to try alternate possibilities.
5. Discuss findings, what possibilities did they come up with?
6. Ask students how the landmasses moved to their current position- accept all possibilities.
7. Ask students: “Are the landmasses are still moving?”
8. Show “Animated Life: Pangea” by the NYTimes
9. Have students try to create Pangea again.
10. Discuss.

The Pangaea Pop-Up video is a great video to show also: