The History of Plate Tectonics

Background info:6th graders come into 6th grade knowing very little about how mountains are formed, what causes volcanoes to erupt, what causes earthquakes, or how the landforms got where they are.
Foundational knowledge: After studying the rock cycle, students are ready to look at the layers of the earth and how they work to affect the surface of the earth. They learn that from ancient times, humans had many theories about what caused earthquakes and volcanoes and the reasons seem crazy to us now.
We study plate tectonics in a timeline basis. We start with Alfred Wegener and his theory of continental drift and how he was thought to be crazy for his ideas despite the evidence he found supporting his theory. We move on to more scientific evidence found during World War II by Henry Hess by his sonar readings:evidence that the sea floor was not flat at all. This leads to the further evidence of the sea floor ridge that is growing in the Atlantic Ocean which lead to more study. This led to the discovery that the ocean floor contained evidence of magnetic reversals over time. But the last key to the puzzle of plate tectonics was what the engine is driving all this: heat within the Earth is moving these things called plates!
Activities related: clay models of the layers of the Earth; Milky Way candy bars cut to mimic the Earth's plates and layers, graham crackers crashing into each other to mimic plate action
Once the students understand the way the theory evolved over time and came to be accepted based on scientific evidence, students are ready to storyboard their stop motion movie about it.
I would break up my class into groups so a group of a few students would cover one area of the entire movie. This would allow them to focus on their part for the scripting and storyboarding. As their teacher, I would be sure they were all on task. Students would use claymation since we do not have animation software.
I would also plan to submit the finished product to our local student video awards as well as to the California Media Festival in the spring.