Are you Looking for a Plate Boundaries Activity that’s Fun and Tasty?

Let’s go over a plate boundaries activity that your students will enjoy! Learning about plate boundaries is fun because it involves volcanoes and earthquakes. But what about modeling what happens at each type of boundary? This plate boundaries activity is designed to do just that.

In this post

We will go over plate boundaries, when we’d teach it and use this lab activity. I will share the engaging lab that I do with my students. It helps them understand what happens at plate boundaries.

You can get the Plate Boundaries Lab here.

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When to Teach Plate Boundaries

Plate boundaries are taught during a Plate Tectonics unit. Plate tectonics is the theory that Earth’s lithosphere is broken up into distinct plates. This activity will show what happens at each of the plate boundaries- divergent, transform, and convergent.

This is supported by this NGSS standard:

MS-ESS2-2: Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth’s surface at varying time and spatial scales.

When to use plate boundaries with a picture of divergent boundary clip art; Use this activity to show students what happens when two plates interact. This will show divergent, transform, and convergent boundaries. This lab supports NGSS standard MS-ESS2-2

Plate Boundaries Lab

There are different ways to show or explore plate boundaries. You can use clay, computer modeling, or graham crackers. In this lab we will use graham crackers.

Click here to get the plate boundaries lab in my TpT store. You’ll get a Power Point, lab sheet, and a lesson plan.

Lab Materials

Each group will need two graham crackers, frosting, wax paper, a plastic knife or popsicle stick, and a cup with water. Strawberry frosting is fun because it will look like magma. Some teachers have used shaving cream or something of that consistency to replace frosting.

Plate boundaries activity materials list with picture of graham crackers and pink frosting

Lab Preparation

Cover lab tables or trays with wax paper. This will be students’ work area. Break apart the graham crackers so each group has two pieces. Scoop some frosting onto each wax paper. Give students a copy of the lab sheet.

Conducting the Lab with Students

I use a PowerPoint for each lab I do with students. This gives them a visual of each part of the lab along with directions for conducting the lab and cleaning up. Read more about managing labs in this blog post.

Students will follow the directions for each step. I separated it into three separate procedures. For each step, they will complete the action with the graham crackers and then collect data. Before each step, they will spread an even layer of frosting on the wax paper.

Step 1: Place two graham crackers next to each other so they are touching. Slowly slide them away from each other. Students will collect data and name the boundary.

Step 2: Place two graham crackers next to each other so they are touching. Slowly slide them in opposite directions (up and down). Collect data and name the boundary.

Step 3: Dip one edge of each cracker into a cup of water. Place the crackers away from each other. Slowly move them toward each other until they touch. Collect data and name the boundary.

Wrapping Up the Lab

When students are finished with the lab, it’s important for them to clean up and to analyze their results or data.

For this lab, I like to ask questions such as:

Was your hypothesis correct? Explain.

In relation to the Earth, what did the graham cracker represent? What did the frosting represent?

What land feature or event is created or formed at each plate boundary and how did the crackers and frosting model each?

Bonus: I give them new graham crackers and let them snack while they clean up.

Wrap Up

Teaching about plate boundaries can be a lot of fun! We went over when we would teach plate boundaries and how to use this lab in your classroom. You can get the Plate Boundary Lab in my TpT store.