Students should spread frosting about half an inch thick on a piece of wax paper, which will represent the asthenosphere. Give them fruit roll-ups for the oceanic crust and graham crackers for the continental crust. Instruct them to create different models of the earth with these materials. For example, they could create a divergent plate boundary by slowly pushing down on two squares of fruit rolls next to each other, causing the frosting to push up like magma.
Have students visit the Musical Plates website to engage with interactive activities over the span of several class days. The students will start off reading a story about why they are on this particular mission. After that, they will go on to complete a number of tasks that require them to find earthquakes happening in real time and locate them on a map, make predictions about plates and future earthquakes and show the relationships between earthquakes and plate boundaries.
Not all students are interactive, hands-on learners. Therefore, assign a specific research project to each student. Examples of topics to include in the lineup are the tragedy in Pompeii, the relationship between volcanoes and earthquakes, the dangers and hazards of such natural disasters and how seismograph stations function. After the student completes the research, require a written report as well as an oral presentation to the rest of the class about the topic.
Explain the relationship between plate tectonics and the concept of Pangaea, the idea that all of the lands of the earth were together as one at one point. Print out the cutouts from the Pangaea Project, and have students label each continent. Now, ask them to put the puzzle pieces together to show what Pangaea looked like. Ask them what minerals continental and ocean plates are made up of and what causes the plates to move. Have them make predictions about what they think will happen in the future.