Building Pangea
Name: Lauren Strickland Date: 3/12/14
Student Exploration: Building Pangaea
Vocabulary: continental drift, fossil, glacier, ice age, landmass, Pangaea, supercontinent
Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)
1. Antarctica is a frozen land, so cold and icy that no trees can grow there. Yet scientists have discovered fossils (remains preserved in rock) of ancient trees in Antarctica.
What do you think this means? That Antarctica was once a part of the continents & it was separated by continental drift.
2. The Himalayas in central Asia are the tallest mountains in the world. But fossils of seashells can be found high in these mountains, far from any ocean.
How do you think they got there? Molten rock coming out of the earth piled up & made the mountains from under the water.
Gizmo Warm-up
1. The Gizmo allows you to drag and rotate all the major landmasses on Earth.
To drag a landmass, grab it in the middle.
To rotate a landmass, grab it near the edge.
Learn the names of landmasses by holding the cursor over the landmass for a few seconds.
Mark where you live. Drag an arrow from the purple bar at left to your location.
2. Test your geography skills. Drag and rotate landmasses randomly until you make a big mess. Then try to move them back to their original positions.
When you have made the best map you can, click the camera icon in the upper right corner to take a snapshot. Then open a blank word-processing document and choose Paste.
3. Click Reset. Compare your map to the real one. How well did you do? I was about right.
Activity A:
Solving the puzzle
Get the Gizmo ready:
If necessary, click Reset.
Check that the Evidence shown is None.
Introduction: In 1915, a German scientist named Alfred Wegener (VAY-guh-ner) proposed the theory of continental drift. According to this theory, the landmasses once were joined into a supercontinent called Pangaea. The landmasses then
Student Exploration: Building Pangaea
Vocabulary: continental drift, fossil, glacier, ice age, landmass, Pangaea, supercontinent
Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)
1. Antarctica is a frozen land, so cold and icy that no trees can grow there. Yet scientists have discovered fossils (remains preserved in rock) of ancient trees in Antarctica.
What do you think this means? That Antarctica was once a part of the continents & it was separated by continental drift.
2. The Himalayas in central Asia are the tallest mountains in the world. But fossils of seashells can be found high in these mountains, far from any ocean.
How do you think they got there? Molten rock coming out of the earth piled up & made the mountains from under the water.
Gizmo Warm-up
1. The Gizmo allows you to drag and rotate all the major landmasses on Earth.
To drag a landmass, grab it in the middle.
To rotate a landmass, grab it near the edge.
Learn the names of landmasses by holding the cursor over the landmass for a few seconds.
Mark where you live. Drag an arrow from the purple bar at left to your location.
2. Test your geography skills. Drag and rotate landmasses randomly until you make a big mess. Then try to move them back to their original positions.
When you have made the best map you can, click the camera icon in the upper right corner to take a snapshot. Then open a blank word-processing document and choose Paste.
3. Click Reset. Compare your map to the real one. How well did you do? I was about right.
Activity A:
Solving the puzzle
Get the Gizmo ready:
If necessary, click Reset.
Check that the Evidence shown is None.
Introduction: In 1915, a German scientist named Alfred Wegener (VAY-guh-ner) proposed the theory of continental drift. According to this theory, the landmasses once were joined into a supercontinent called Pangaea. The landmasses then