Westridge School: Google Earth & Oreos – A Delicious Lesson in Plate Tectonics

Westridge’s Lower School Science Teacher Liz Kim’s class, students used Oreos in an activity to simulate types of plate boundaries in tectonic plates—which are large, rocky plates of the Earth’s crust and uppermost mantle. By researching and using the Google Earth app, students learned about three types of plate boundaries (divergent, convergent, and transform) and various places around the world where the boundaries are most prominent, Kim said, allowing them to understand how the Earth’s surface is shaped by plate tectonics. Each student picked one of these places, broke the top half of their Oreo to create their researched plate boundary, and placed it on the location on a large world map in the classroom.

“Lower school students love edible science experiments and Friday afternoon is a perfect time to have extra fun learning!” said Kim.

Westridge School, 324 Madeline Drive, Pasadena, (626) 799-1053 ext. 200 or visit www.westridge.org.