Exemplar for Activity 41
Question posed to Students:
“After completing Student Sheet 41.1, use it to help you write a paragraph describing continental movement. Support this idea with evidence.”
Criteria for assessment: ● Examples: fossils, continent shape, rock formations, structures at plate boundaries
● use evidence to support the idea of plate motion (tectonic, continental drift, etc.)
o identify that similar rocks and fossils have been found on different continents
o identify the similarity of the shapes of different continents and that they fit together
Level 4 Response:
Includes a response like Level 3, coupled with a related visual such as:
1
Level 3 Response:
Continental drift is the idea that all of the continents were once joined together to form a single piece of land. This land broke into pieces and the continents drifted apart. This idea was first suggested by Alfred Wegener in 1915. He called the single continent Pangea. Today, there are many different kinds of evidence that support the idea of continental movement. The evidence for this is: satellites show that continents are still moving, the outlines of some of the continents match really well like puzzle pieces, and fossils of extinct plants and animals are found in different parts of the world to show that they might have been connected in the past.
1
<http://bmsscience8209.edublogs.org/files/2010/10/Smartbaord­Pangaea­diagram­2cjvtmj­300x229.jpg>
Level 2 Response:
Continental drift is the idea that all of the continents were once joined together to form a big piece of land and it was called Pangea. This land broke into pieces and the continents drifted apart. We know this happened because the edges of some of the continents match really well like puzzle pieces.
Level 1 Response:
Continental drift is when the continents float on the ocean from place to place around the world. They were once all together in a group called Pangea.