Mississippi Science MAQ.3.2
The Standard
- MAQ.3
- Students will understand the principles of plate tectonics, sea floor spreading, and physical features of oceanic zones.
Develop an understanding of plate tectonics to predict certain geological features (e.g., sea floor spreading, paleomagnetic measurements, and orogenesis).
2026 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for Science · Geological Features
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students use seafloor ages and magnetic stripe patterns to work out how plates move. They predict where new crust, trenches, and mountains form when plates separate or meet.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given a seafloor map, a student can find a spreading ridge from matching magnetic bands and identify the youngest rock near it. Given a plate-motion diagram, they can predict a trench where one plate sinks or mountains where continents collide.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may put the oldest seafloor at the ridge or think magnetic stripes cause plates to move. They may think every collision makes only mountains, missing the trench that forms when one plate sinks beneath another.
How to Assess It
- On an exit ticket, show a ridge with matching magnetic bands and a separate diagram of two continents colliding. Ask students to mark the youngest seafloor, name the landform at the collision, and explain each answer.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Pull two identical striped paper strips outward from a slit in cardboard to model new crust and matching magnetic bands on both sides.
Show a map of magnetic stripes and ask, “Where is the ridge, and which rocks formed first? What tells you?”
Give pairs plate-motion cards and feature cards to match ridges, trenches, and mountain ranges, then explain each match.
Use a map of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge near Iceland; have students mark where new crust forms and predict which seafloor rocks are older.
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Printable MAQ.3.2 Worksheet
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Related Standards
- E.8.9A.2
Explore and debate theories of plate tectonics to form conclusions about past and current movements of rocks at Earth's surface throughout history.
- ESS.2A.2
Analyze and interpret data to explain and communicate the differentiation of Earth’s physical divisions (e.g., lithosphere and asthenosphere) using data from se...
- ESS.2B.4
Research, analyze, and explain the origin of geologic features and processes that result from plate tectonics, including sea floor spreading, earthquake activit...
- MAQ.3
Students will understand the principles of plate tectonics, sea floor spreading, and physical features of oceanic zones.
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