DATE:9/13/11LEQ: What evidence did Alfred Wagner use to explain his idea of continental drift?

REMINDER: COMPLETE SENTENCES!!!1. What is the densest layer of the Earth? 2. How do you know?3. What is the coolest layer of the earth?4. What is the layer of earth with LESS pressure than the mantle?5. List the layers of the earth in order, from the inside out! (does not need to be in a complete sentence!)

Agenda

1. Review2. Activating Strategy3. Notes4. Independent Work5. Summarizer

LET’S REVIEWMOST DENSE LAYER = ___________

LAYER WITH THE LEAST PRESSURE = ____

LAYER WITH THE HOTTEST TEMPERATURE = ___________

LAYER BELOW THE MANTLE = ________

LEAST DENSE LAYER = ___________

NAME THAT LAYER!

Today’s LEQ: What evidence did Alfred Wagner use to explain his idea of continental drift?

By the end of today, you should be able to…

1. Identify the three types of evidence used to support the concept of Pangaea and continental drift

Focus Vocabulary6. Continental Drift7. Pangaea

Activating Strategy:

What clues did you use to put together the pieces

of the puzzle?

OUTLINESSHAPE

DOTS, HEARTS, etc.

Notice anything?

READING: ALFRED WAGNER• Alfred Wagner was a German scientist, geophysicist, and meteorologist

that lived in the early 1900s.He was an extreme science nerd, and he even died right in the middle of an expedition to study artic air masses. He and his fellow scientists were in Greenland in the middle of winter, and they ran out of food and supplies. Wagner tried to ski to go find help, and his body was found buried in snow six months later! He is most notable for his theory of continental drift, proposed in 1912. After noticing that the different continents of the Earth seemed to fit together like a puzzle, he hypothesized that the continents were once joined together in one big supercontinent, called Pangaea (which is Greek for “All-Earth”). Over time, he thought that the continents slowly driftedapart, which made them break into pieces like we see on the map today. Alfred’s ideas were considered pretty radical for his time, but he was persistent with his theory because he had three solid types of evidence to prove it! Just what was this evidence? You will find out soon!

What evidence do scientists use to justify the theory that the continents were once

connected like this picture? (HINT: THINK ABOUT THE PUZZLE!)

CONTINENTAL DRIFT: the idea that the continents are slowly drifting apart

Evidence:

FOSSILS CLIMATE GEOLOGY (ROCKS)

FOSSILS:

SAME TYPES OF FOSSILS FOUND

HOT Q: Which fossil do you think is the strongest evidence for the theory of continental drift?

• Tropical fossils in the arctic• Glacier/Ice Evidence in the Sahara

CLIMATE:

?

Equator??

HOT Q: If the continents had never drifted apart from Pangaea, how would our world be different today?

Think about: Cultures and climate

GEOLOGY/ROCKS• Similar rock types found at the

edges of continents

CONTINENTAL DRIFT: the idea that the continents are slowly drifting apart

Evidence:

FOSSILS: CLIMATE: GEOLOGY:

PANGAEA: all the continents stuck together!

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaUk94AdXPA&feature=related

HOT Q:

• DO YOU THINK THAT THE CONTINENTS ARE STILL MOVING TODAY? WHY OR WHY NOT?

The continents are still moving! They move about 5 cm each year!!

CREATE-YOUR-OWN CONTINENTS!

PART ONE/PART TWO CLASS SET HAND-OUT

SCISSOR/GLUE PROCEDURES

ROCK TYPESHALE

LIMESTONE

BASALT

GRANITE

GNEISS

QUARTZ

OBSIDIAN

FOSSIL TYPET - triceratopsS - stegosaurusV - velociraptorX - tyrannosaurus

CLIMATE EVIDENCE

ICE/GLACIER EVIDENCE

TROPICAL PLANT EVIDENCE

• Scientists found coconut fossils in Antarctica where it is very cold. Describe how this is possible in at least 2 sentences.

SUMMARIZER