Activity 40 Continental Puzzle Unplugged Activity Work in

Activity 40 Continental Puzzle

Unplugged Activity Work in teams to “program a bot” to work in a grid to complete a “mission” ● Rescue Mission ● Sending a Rocket to Mars ● Move to a Number

Introduction: p. D-23

Stars and Stairs

Turn and Talk Imagine that in the future, Hawaii became a cold, snowy place. What do you think a fossilized palm tree would tell us about what the climate used to be in Hawaii?

Discussion In which part of the world do we live? Which continent is our country in? How many continents are there?

Step 1 Within your group, carefully examine the location of the world’s continents on the map on page D-25.

Step 2 Record the names of the seven continents in your science notebook.

Step 3 ● Look at the Click and Drag Continents program in Scratch to see your puzzle pieces ● Click on the individual pieces to move them around. ● Look at the map of the world on page D-25 ● Put a star next to each continent in your list that is represented by a puzzle piece. ● Then record the name(s) of any additional pieces.

Things to Know In these activities, you will be using puzzle pieces to form land masses. For our purposes, even though we identify Europe and Asia as two continents, they form one land mass, which we will refer to as Eurasia. Even though India is currently part of Asia, for the purpose of this puzzle activity, India will be its own land mass. For the continent of Antarctica, remember that although we see it as a sliver on a two-dimensional map, on a globe, it is a circular land mass

Step 4 ● ● In the Scratch editor for Click and Drag Continents, press the green flag to start the pieces in random positions. Then click and drag the puzzle pieces so that the continents are in their present-day positions. Notice what happens to the “x” and “y” in Scratch when you move the continents. Try to rotate your puzzle pieces by changing the piece sprite’s “direction”.

Step 5 Look at the symbols on some of the puzzle pieces. The symbols represent types of fossils or rocks found in several locations. The key to these symbols is shown on page D-24.

Step 6 ● Work with a partner on Scratch to try to place all the puzzle pieces into a single shape. ○ ○ Continent Puzzle Level 1 Continent Puzzle Level 2 ● Work together to decide where each piece belongs. ○ If you didn’t have well-fitting puzzle pieces what evidence could you use to arrange the continents? ○ Remember to listen to and consider the explanations and ideas of the person you are working with. If you disagree, explain why you disagree.

Step 7 Turn and Talk at your table: ● ● ● What do you notice about the rock and fossil evidence in the way you’ve arranged the continents? ○ Does the evidence support your arrangement? Why or why not? How would you summarize any change that you might have noticed in the position of the continents? ○ Are the continents as you used evidence to arrange them in the same positions as they are on the map today? ○ What has to have happened, in order to move the continents from those positions to their current ones? What evidence have you used to support that claim?

Step 8 In your science notebook, sketch an outline of the final shape of your completed puzzle piece. ● Draw and label the individual puzzle pieces within your outline.

Step 9 Ask your teacher for a copy of Student Sheet 40. 1, “Earth Surface Through Geological Time, ” for your group.

Step 10 Turn and Talk: Discuss with your group what you think has happened to the land on the surface of the earth during geological time.

Step 11 ● Compare the outline that you sketched in Step 7 with Student Sheet 40. 1 ● Identify when in Earth’s history the continents were arranged in a similar way. ● Record this time period, and the name of the land at this time, next to your sketch.

Step 12 ● Go back to Scratch--each of the two models have something wrong with them. ● Use your knowledge of Pangea, continental drift, and fossil and rock evidence to figure out what is wrong. ● Use that knowledge and your Scratch skills to debug the code. ○ Continental Movement Debug Level 1, ○ Continental Movement Debug Level 2

Step 13 ● Use the models you have used in this lesson to create or remix a Scratch model of your own to support theory of continental drift. ● Make sure to include rock, fossil, and landmass shape. ● Scratch Rubric

Assessment What types of evidence did the puzzle provide about the changes on Earth’s surface? ● Choose two pieces of evidence from the model. ● For each piece of evidence, describe what it is and how it supports theory that the position of the continents has changed over geological time. Hint: Think about how you used the pieces to model changes on Earth’s surface.