Natural Hazards - Plate Boundaries

Objectives

To understand how and why volcanoes and earthquakes occur at plate boundaries.

To understand the causes of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.

Resources

Today's Lesson

Main Activity

Back in Step 13's lesson, we learnt that the Earth's crust is broken up into lots of different plates. Today we are going to learn in more detail about what happens where the plates meet. We are going to start off looking at hazards caused by the movement of the Earth's surface, but first we need to understand what happens under the Earth’s surface!

First watch the 5-minute video Plate Tectonics for Kids. This recaps what we learnt last lesson and begins to introduce what happens where plates meet.

WATCH – Plate Tectonics for Kids (YouTube)

Read pages 6-7 in the Volcanoes and Earthquakes Study Book.

Now complete pages 6-7 of the Volcanoes and Earthquakes Activity Book.

Have a go at making models of the different types of boundaries, using the Plate Boundaries Playdough Task as your guide.

Challenge Activity

Can your student mark each type of plate boundary on their map of the plates from Step 13 (page 4 in Volcanoes and Earthquakes Activity Book)? They will need to use the Internet to help them with this activity.

Quiz

PRACTISE - Step 14 Quiz

Citations

[1] www.youtube.com