Tectonics Plates 3-D Model Making Kit

Show how tectonic plates shape the world with our interactive model! 

Models are powerful tools for teaching science because they provide useful simplifications of structures and processes, helping to make the unseen seen and the complex simple.

Your students first make their model tectonic plates using the colorful parts and then use them to look at their structure and how tectonic plates interact at their margins. These interactions form mountains, deep ocean trenches, islands, volcanoes and cause earthquakes!

The model can also be used to look at the following interactions: oceanic meeting oceanic plate, oceanic meeting continental plate, continental meeting continental plate, conservative plate margins and mid-ocean ridges.

The Model Making Kit includes enough materials for students to assemble up to 5 paper models working cooperatively. The comprehensive Teacher Resource Guide included provides illustrated readings, activities, key vocabulary and an assessment, along with teaching opportunities for students to Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend and Evaluate their understanding of the concepts presented.

Models are powerful tools for teaching science because they provide useful simplifications of structures and processes, helping to make the unseen seen and the complex simple.

Based upon the NGSS Standards, students are expected to develop and use models to represent structures, systems and processes, and then provide explanations, make predictions, or investigate possible solutions.

Using the ready-to-use materials provided with each 3-D model set, students first assemble a model to represent a structure or an entire system as an aid to develop questions and explanations. They will then generate data and observations that can be used to make predictions and communicate ideas to others.