Past Plate Motions Activities for Middle School Science

The Kesler Science Plate Tectonics 5E Lesson is a comprehensive, student-led unit designed for middle school. It includes presentations, worksheets, choice projects, and assessments, all fully editable for flexible use. Differentiated and multimodal, the lesson engages students while minimizing teacher prep time.

Aligned with NGSS, this lesson covers key concepts such as plate tectonics, plate boundaries, and crustal features. The unit follows the 5E Model, featuring engagement activities, a hands-on exploration station lab with nine differentiated stations, and interactive PowerPoints and notebooks in English and Spanish. Students extend learning through choice projects and demonstrate understanding with updated STAAR 2.0-aligned assessments.

The resource supports virtual and in-class learning, offering printable and digital formats, Spanish translations, and editable materials.

The Kesler Science Continental Drift 5E Lesson is a comprehensive middle school unit covering Alfred Wegener’s theory and the evidence supporting continental drift. It includes editable presentations, worksheets, choice projects, and assessments, all designed for differentiated, student-led learning with minimal prep. The lesson aligns with NGSS standards and integrates multimodal learning for engagement.

Following the 5E Model, students begin with vocabulary-building and discussion-based engagement activities. The exploration phase features a differentiated station lab with nine stations, including hands-on experiments, reading passages in English and Spanish, research tasks, videos, and interactive categorization activities. Explanation resources include editable PowerPoints, interactive notebooks, and note-taking templates. Students deepen their understanding through choice projects in the elaboration phase. Evaluation includes updated STAAR 2.0-aligned assessments, review questions, and worksheets.

The lesson is fully flexible, offering digital and printable formats, Spanish translations for key materials, and virtual learning compatibility.

The Kesler Science Fossils 5E Lesson is a comprehensive unit designed for middle school students, incorporating presentations, worksheets, choice projects, and assessments. This fully editable, multi-day lesson requires minimal prep and supports differentiated, student-led learning. It aligns with NGSS earth science standards and includes Spanish translations of vocabulary, station lab passages, and interactive notebook pages.

Following the 5E Model, the unit begins with engagement activities, including objectives, word wall cards, and class discussions. The exploration phase features a differentiated, student-led station lab with nine stations offering hands-on activities, reading passages, research tasks, videos, and creative output stations. The explanation phase includes editable PowerPoints, interactive notebooks, and note-taking templates. Students extend their learning through choice projects, while evaluation includes STAAR 2.0-aligned assessments and review worksheets. 

Designed for maximum flexibility, the lesson is available in digital and printable formats and can be used in virtual or in-person classrooms.

Engage your middle school students in a student-led exploration of plate tectonics with this interactive station lab. Designed for independent or small-group learning, the lab helps students identify major tectonic plates through nine differentiated stations featuring videos, readings, research, hands-on activities, and assessments.

Students interact with new concepts through multimodal input stations, including hands-on demonstrations, research tasks, reading passages available in English and Spanish, and video-based learning. Output stations allow them to showcase their understanding through organizing information, sketching models, writing responses, and completing assessments. A challenge station provides extension activities for advanced learners.

This modular, low-prep resource is adaptable for both in-class and virtual learning, offering an engaging and comprehensive approach to earth science education.

Engage your middle school students with this student-led station lab on continental drift theory. Designed for in-class or virtual learning, this activity allows students to explore how continents once fit together into a supercontinent and examine the evidence supporting this theory.

Students direct their own learning through nine interactive stations featuring hands-on demonstrations, research, readings, videos, and creative tasks. They demonstrate understanding by organizing information, illustrating models, writing responses, and completing assessments. A bonus challenge station offers extension activities for advanced learners. 

This differentiated, modular resource promotes active engagement and critical thinking while minimizing prep time.

Engage your middle school students with this modular, student-led Fossils Station Lab aligned with NGSS standards. In this activity, students construct scientific explanations based on evidence from rock strata through nine interactive stations designed for independent or small-group learning. Each station offers differentiated activities, providing personalized learning experiences and supporting early finishers with an additional challenge station.

Input stations include exploring fossils through hands-on demonstrations, researching fossil information online, reading differentiated English and Spanish passages, and watching informative videos. Output stations allow students to demonstrate learning by organizing information with manipulatives, illustrating models, responding to writing prompts, and completing assessments using vocabulary in context. The bonus Challenge station provides engaging extension activities such as crosswords, games, and mini-projects.

This flexible, low-prep resource promotes active learning, critical thinking, and can be used seamlessly for in-person or virtual learning environments.

The Plate Boundaries Student Choice Projects align with NGSS science standards, allowing middle school students to demonstrate their understanding through a project that matches their preferred output style. A project page outlines six student-led options plus a “design your own” project, with an editable rubric for teacher, peer, or self-assessment. 

These flexible, multimodal projects offer creative ways for students to showcase their learning. Two versions of the project page support differentiation, with modified options for students needing remediation and challenge opportunities for advanced learners. Teachers can adjust the rubric to fit grading needs. 

The projects use standard classroom supplies like paper, markers, and scissors, with many options available for digital completion. Some crafting materials may be useful for building models.

The Continental Drift Theory Student Choice Projects align with NGSS science standards, allowing middle school students to select a project that suits their preferred output style. A project page outlines six student-led options plus a “design your own” project, all with an editable rubric for teacher, peer, or self-assessment.  

These flexible, multimodal projects provide creative ways for students to demonstrate their understanding. Teachers can adjust the rubric to fit grading needs, and two versions of the project page support differentiation. The modified version includes three project options designed for students needing remediation, while advanced learners can be challenged with multiple projects using the same rubric.  

The projects use standard classroom supplies such as paper, markers, and scissors, with many options available for digital completion. Some crafting materials may be useful for model-building.

This Fossils Student Choice Projects lesson aligns with NGSS standards, allowing middle school students to select a project based on their preferred style. The included project page offers nine student-led options and a "design your own" choice, supported by an editable rubric suitable for teacher, peer, or self-assessment.

The projects are flexible and multimodal, providing engaging, personalized ways for students to demonstrate their understanding. Differentiation is supported through two versions of the project page: a modified option to assist students needing remediation, and combined projects to challenge advanced learners, all using the same rubric.

Standard classroom materials such as paper, markers, and scissors are sufficient for these projects, and digital completion options are also available. Some projects may benefit from additional crafting supplies for model building.

The Plate Tectonics Escape Room is an interactive activity that allows students to explore plate tectonics and Wegener's continental drift theory in an engaging way. Designed to align with NGSS standards MS-ESS2-2 and MS-ESS2-3, this escape room challenges students to construct explanations based on geoscience evidence and analyze data related to fossils, rock distribution, and seafloor structures.

Teachers have full control over the eight independent puzzles, choosing which to use and in what order, making the activity adaptable for different class lengths. The escape room can be conducted using simple materials like manila envelopes or a more immersive setup with locks, a lockout hasp, and a storage box. A digital version is available via PowerPoint or Google Slides, allowing students to interact with questions and images online. A printable version can also be assigned for at-home learning.

This resource includes teacher directions, a detailed answer key, digital and printable student versions, a digital answer sheet via Google Forms, a video challenge, and eight unique puzzles with all necessary printable props. Also included are reward templates, over 50 prize ideas, and 30 unique signs for a fun photo finish.