Before I share some ideas for Earth layers activities for you to try in your classroom, I want you to first brainstorm some questions your students might have before you begin this lesson. How many Earth layers are there? How do Earth’s layers interact? How are Earth’s layers formed? How do we know what Earth’s layers are? When were the layers of the Earth discovered?
There may be so many questions that your students have about the Earth. There are some you can answer, but there may be some that you cannot, and that’s ok.
The important thing is that you have them WONDERING and wanting to learn more about a topic. That’s what science is, right? We are always wanting to know more and begin searching for answers.
In this WOW Factor post, I will share how you can get your students hyped up about learning about the structure of the Earth. Then, I will share how you can use an interactive lesson to dig into the vocabulary and the content. Finally, I’ll share some widen strategies that will allow your students to shine and show off what they have learned, and in the process, learn even more.
Which Earth layers activities will you choose?
Help Your Students Want to Learn More Earth Layers Facts
There are many ways to get your students hyped up about learning about the inside of of Earth, but here are some quick ideas. These Earth layers activities will help your students WONDER!
Earth Layers Demo
To get students thinking about the inside of the Earth and what it is made of, you can try this quick demo to get their minds wondering.
All you need is a clear cup or tube. Put some water in first, and then put some oil on top.
The water will represent the core and the oil represents the mantle, which is less dense than the core.
On the very top, you can place some cut of pieces of Styrofoam, like jigsaw puzzle pieces. This will represent the crust.
You can throw in an Alka-Seltzer tablet as well to show how movement in the inside causes movement on the surface as well.
How Do We Know? Research
This is a way to allow your students to do a bit of inquiry before beginning the content. It’s great to know about the layers of the Earth, but how do we know about them? Did we stick a drill down deep into the Earth?
Before learning about the layers, have your students to research how we even know there are layers inside of our Earth. They don’t need to have a list of Earth’s layers quite yet, but they can start figuring out how they came to be.
You can have them do their own research or provide them with links to review.
Here are some great resources! There is one Earth layers video and some website resources.
7 Ways We Know What’s Inside the Earth
How We Know What’s Deep Inside the Earth
How Do Scientists Know the Structure of the Earth’s Interior
Earth Layer’s Lesson and Activity
Now that your students are hyped up and have more questions about the inside of the Earth, it’s now time to dive into the content a tad deep and focus on some of the terminology and important concepts.
In order to do this, an interactive lesson will do the trick! Interactive lessons are great for reducing cognitive load because students are only exposed to a little bit of information at a time, and then have time to process through embedded activities. These lessons help students retain information in their long-term memory.
In this Structure of the Earth Interactive Lesson, students will learn about compositional and mechanical layers of the Earth in order. They will explore density, temperature, and pressure as you go deeper into the Earth. It’s a great introduction lesson to how and why the layers are identified as they are.
As students go through the lesson, they will complete embedded activities such as an Anticipation Guide, drag-and-drop activities, a Venn diagram, exploring outside resources, and more! Skip the Earth layers worksheet and try this!
This is a fun Earth’s layers online activity, but there is also a paper version included as well!
You can also find this on TPT.
Earth Layers Project Ideas
At this point, your students know a lot, so now it’s time for them to learn EVEN MORE and show off what they already know. There are a lot of activities for layers of the Earth out there, but here are my favorites you can do before moving on to learning about plate tectonics. These Earth layers activities will WIDEN student knowledge.
Earth Layers Activities – Create a Model
You can have your students create a layers of the Earth 3D model. This is probably the most common project that there is, and for good reason. It gives students a chance to express their creativity while providing a visualization of science concepts. You can choose the materials and structure of the model, but I highly suggest letting students create their own.
They may create their project with paper, 3D printer, Styrofoam, Play Doh, Legos, etc. There are so many options and lots of inspiration online. They can even create an Earth layers edible project.
You can grade based on creativity, accurateness, how close they are to representing the density of each, how close they are to representing the composition of each layer, etc.
Gather materials in advance or allow this be a take home project. The choice is yours! This is a fun Earth layers project to have students create at home.
Looking for something different? Why not try out written models in your classroom? In this Earth Layers Model Activity, students create a written model based on a writing prompt. There are THIRTY-SIX writing prompts to choose from! They cover the structure of the Earth, Earth’s magnetic field, density, composition, and more!
These writing prompts can be used in so many ways! Click above to learn more!
Earth Layer’s RAFT
I am a HUGE fan of RAFT assignments. It allows students to show of their creativity plus allows for scientific writing in the classroom. So, what is a RAFT? It’s a prompt for students to write!
R is the role of the author. It is the perspective that you are writing from.
A is the audience. It is who you are writing to.
F is the format. It is the format of the writing. Is it a narrative? Essay? Letter?
T is the topic. It is the topic of the writing piece.
You can create a RAFT students for students to discuss the layers of the Earth. Some of the important concepts with this topic is how the Earth is layered and why it is layers that way. Another important concept is how density, temperature, and pressure increase as you go deeper into the Earth.
Here’s an fun example RAFT assignment you can give to your students.
- R: A Scientist
- A: Citizens of the World
- F: A News Report
- T: There is new technology that has been created that can drill a hole all the way through one side of the Earth to the other. Report your findings. What did you find within the Earth? Explain the density, temperature, and pressure. Explain the composition.
Which Earth layers activities will you add to your lesson plan?
[…] Earth Layers […]