A 5th grade teacher approached me with an idea to introduce tectonic plates to her students. In the past, she had the students plot the coordinates on an overhead sheet with the world map on it. Then they would lay the overhead sheets on top of one another and see where the volcanoes and earthquakes occurred and see where the tectonic plates are located. After planning together, we realized that Google Maps would have the same effect, with more student engagement and collaboration.
In preparation for this lesson, the teacher created a Google Map with 5 layers on that one map, and then she shared the map with her student’s Henrico Google accounts. When the students went to the apps and clicked on Maps, they were able to locate the map that was shared with them. Within the classroom the students were divided into 5 groups as well. Everyone had a role within the group and they rotated jobs. One student called out the given longitude and latitude. Another student plotted this point on the paper map, while another student plotted the point on the Google Map. They worked together as a team to ensure that the pins on the map were in the correct location based on the longitude and latitude on the paper map. The students were plotting the given data, not realizing that the points they were plotting were the longitude and latitude of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that have occurred.
Once all the groups have plotted their points (black pins for earthquakes and red pins for volcanoes), the students will be able to see all of the plots for all 5 groups and better be able to see patterns with the data. This will help students to realize that these are tectonic plates. What a great intro to their study of the Earth’s boundaries!
Here is their finished map.
