Plate tectonics Lesson

Long-Term Climate

Change

Nov. 10-Continental Drift

How does El Niño affect the climate in
the southern United States?

🐢 It makes it colder and rain less.

🐇 It makes it colder and rain more.

😀 It makes it warmer and rain more.

🔊 It does not affect the southern US
because it takes place in the Pacific
Ocean.

Multiple Choice

How does El Niño affect the climate in
the southern United States?

• 🐢 It makes it colder and rain less.

• 🐇 It makes it colder and rain more.

• 😀 It makes it warmer and rain more

• 🔊 It does not affect the southern US because it takes place in the Pacific Ocean.

Long-Term Climate

Change

Nov. 14- Continental Drift

How does El Niño affect the climate in
the southern United States?

🐢 It makes it colder and rain less.

🐇 It makes it colder and rain more.

😀 It makes it warmer and rain more.

🔊 It does not affect the southern US
because it takes place in the Pacific
Ocean.

Class Norms

Standard

SEV2. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate
information to construct explanations of
stability and change in Earth’s ecosystems.

a. Analyze and interpret data related to
short-term and long-term natural cyclic
fluctuations associated with climate change.

(Clarification statement: Short-term
examples include but are not limited to El
Niño and volcanism. Long-term examples
include but are not limited to variations in
Earth’s orbit such as Milankovitch cycles.)

Learning Targets

I can describe how changes in
land mass locations affect ocean
currents.

I can explain how ocean currents
affect climate.

Two crackers and
marshmallows

S’mores?

●Take two pairs of crackers

●One pair connect them and
push them together.

●One pair pull them apart.

●Now what do you think this
has to do with class today?

Pangea

Continental drift

Sea floor spreading

Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Ocean currents

Highlight the words
you know.

Circle the words you
are not sure about.

Dr. Binocs

Trivia time

●What theory is made about
the reason for the continents
position are now called?

●What are the three plate
movements called?

Multiple Choice

What is the thoery for continental drift known as today

• science of plate tectonics

• science of organisms

• platonic theory

• glacier movment

Plate tectonics

Twilight Zone Study Time

https://www.dev.nationalgeogra

phic.org/media/plate-

tectonics/

●Who made the Tharp-Heezen
map?

●What is the Earth’s outer
crust called?

●What is the upper mantle
called?

Plate tectonics

Twilight Zone Study Time

●Who is Tharp-Heezen?
Scientist Bruce Heezen and
Maria tharp who made a map
of the ocean floor about plate
tectonics

●What is the Earth’s outer
crust called? Lithosphere

●What is the upper mantle
called?Asthenosphere

Continental Drift

Is this what the Earth looks like
today?

👍 Yes

❌No

Pangea was formed about 299 MYA (million
years ago) and lasted until about 180 MYA.

Why does the Earth look different today?

Large plates of rock, called
tectonic plates, slide across
the surface of the Earth
causing a shift in the
continents. We call this
shift Continental Drift.

As they move, the land
masses on top of them
move as well.

The spreading apart of
these plates is what causes
the continents to drift
apart.

Why do the continents move?

🐢 They do not move, the oceans just erode their shorelines and deposit the

soil elsewhere.

🐇 They sit atop plates that slide over the liquid rock inside the earth.

😀 Strong currents in the oceans push them apart.

🔊 The flying spaghetti monster told them to move and they moved.

Multiple Choice

Why do the continents move?

• 🐢 They do not move, the oceans just erode their shorelines and deposit the soil elsewhere.

• 🐇 They sit atop plates that slide over the liquid rock inside the earth

• 😀 Strong currents in the oceans push them apart.

• 🔊 The flying spaghetti monster told them to move and they moved

Why do the continents move?

🐇 They sit atop
plates that slide
over the liquid
rock inside the
earth.

What do you think
the climate was like
in the middle of
this continent 225
mya? (think about
precipitation)

Circle areas where you
would expect to have
the most precipitation
on this globe.

Continental Drift and Climate Change

The middle of Pangea
would have been very
dry and hot.

Remember that oceans
absorb a lot of heat and
play a big role in
precipitation amounts.
Areas around the coast
typically experience
milder seasons and
more precipitation.

As the continents
shifted, so did the
climate.

Think back to how El Niño effects climate here
in Georgia. How do you think the new
oceans and their currents changed the
climate in Pangea as the land started to
break apart?

Where would there be more precipitation?

Changes in the shapes of the Oceans changed
ocean currents.

Changes in ocean currents, like the El Niño
effect, cause changes in the precipitation rates
all across the world.

How do you think changing precipitation
rates affected evolution for plants in North
America during the Eocene Era?

Independent time

●Review and remediation

●Standard’s quiz

Breakout Rm 1 - Plate Tectonics with Tim and Moby

Video Link

Breakout Rm 2 – Milankovitch Assignment

Watch the recording of class from
yesterday if you need help with this
assignment.
https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2948
/milankovitch-orbital-cycles-and-
their-role-in-earths-climate/

Breakout Rm 3 – Flippity Crossword

Click the link to
play the
crossword.

Breakout Rm 4 – Human Impact Notebook

The next submission for
your Human Impact
notebook is coming up.

Check our announcements
in Canvas if you need some
help with your next
submission. This is a very
important assignment to
complete.

Breakout Rm 5 – Progress Learning

Complete the Progress Learning assignment.

Progress Learning

🔶 Log into Progress Learning from Clever.

🔶 Select Environmental Science from the dropbox.

🔶 Click on the Short-term Long Term Effect assignment.

🔶 Complete the study plan if score less than 80%

🔶This is a graded assignment with unlimited attempts.

🔶 Once all parts are completed, submit a screenshot of your
results to the Canvas assignment.

✅ Give a green check when you start Progresss Learning!

👍 Give me a thumbs up when you finish!

Exit ticket

Hezeen-tharp map

●Given the limited technology and
data set available to Marie Tharp
and Bruce Heezen in the 1950s-
1970s, what could be potential
limitations of the Tharp-Heezen
map?

●

Video Link

Keeping Track on

Human Impact

Anthropomorphic

Climate Change

Video Link

Video Link