LESSON PLAN

Subject: Geography
Lesson Topic: Plate Tectonics
Sub topic: Divergent Plate Boundary
Grade: 10
Duration of Session: 80 minutes
Date:

Aim: On completion of this lesson students will have a general understanding of the natural
processes occurring within the earth’s interior and resulting features at the divergent plate
margin.
Specific Objectives:
1. After viewing PowerPoint presentation, students will be able to define the term divergent plate
boundary.
2. Using illustrations, students should be able to describe the processes that occur at divergent
plate boundaries and the resulting features.
3. After viewing PowerPoint illustrations/pictures, students should be able to draw diagrams
representing the two types of divergent plate movements.
4. Students will develop great respect for the workings of natural systems along the surface of
the earth.
Resources & Materials:

 PowerPoint presentation entitled “The Structure of the Earth and Plate Tectonics.”
 CSEC New Integrated Geography by Bleasdell, Cheong, and Song, page 176-177
 Electronic devices (laptop, projector and speakers)
 Blank World Map
Lesson Outline and Instructional Sequence:
Step 1: Two types of divergent movement
a) Selected students will read pages 176 and 177 from the CSEC New Integrated Geography
by Bleasdell, Cheong, and Song and identify the two types of divergent plate movements.
1. What are the two types of movement that occurs at this boundary?
b) A brief discussion outlining the characteristics of each type of movement will be done to
concretize the concepts.
1|Page
 c) A demonstration will be done by two students after which short notes will be developed
on the whiteboard.
Step 2: Process and resulting features of each movement (continental to continental,
oceanic to oceanic)
a) These two divergent plate movements will be shown on the PowerPoint presentation and
students will be asked to describe what is occurring at each plate.
1. What is occurring to the plates?
2. What happens when hot magma reaches the surface?
3. What is meant by the term seafloor spreading?
4. What features are formed at the boundary where the plates diverge?
5. Why are these features formed?
d) After their own explanations, students will view the PowerPoint in addition to their text
to validate their description and through guided practice; students will sketch a simplified
model of each movement in their notebooks.
e) A whiteboard summary will be developed to enhance retention and transfer.
Step 3: Divergent plate boundaries around the world
a) From the PowerPoint presentation students will explore the world’s divergent plate
boundaries on a world map.
1. Why do you think these boundaries are located in these areas?
2. What is the relationship between divergent plate movements and volcanic
activity?
a) A whiteboard summary will be done to concretize the concepts and movements to clear
up any misconceptions students faced.

Sample Table:

Divergent or Constructive Plate Margin

Type of Movement Characteristics Resulting Features

1. Oceanic to Oceanic
2. Continental to Continental
Hot magma rises through cracks and Mid-Atlantic Ridge
fissures
Seafloor spreading
Plates diverge forming a gap
Volcanic Chains/island arcs
Rifting occurs when two plates
diverge Rift Valleys

North American and Eurasian plate

diverge
Student Assessment:
Students will be given ten minutes to complete five open ended questions.
1. Which feature runs from the North Atlantic to the South?

2|Page
 2. When oceanic and continental plates diverge, what is the name of the
resulting feature?
3. What is seafloor spreading?
4. What is a Mid-Atlantic Ridge or Mid Oceanic Ridge?
5. Where does a divergent plate movement mostly occur?

Assignment:
1. What evidence is there to support seafloor spreading?

2. What is meant by continental rifting?

3. On a blank map of the world, students will draw the divergent plate boundaries while
consulting the map in the text Principles of Geography for CXC by London & Senior (pg
18). Students will use a key to distinguish the varying types of plate boundaries.

Brief Content

Places where plates are coming apart are called divergent boundaries. As shown in the drawing
above, when Earth's brittle surface layer (the lithosphere) is pulled apart, it typically breaks along
parallel faults that tilt slightly outward from each other. As the plates separate along the
boundary, the block between the faults cracks and drops down into the soft, plastic interior (the
asthenosphere). The sinking of the block forms a central valley called a rift. Magma (liquid rock)
seeps upward to fill the cracks. In this way, new crust is formed along the boundary. Earthquakes
occur along the faults, and volcanoes form where the magma reaches the surface.

Where a divergent boundary crosses the land, the rift valleys which form are typically 30 to 50
kilometers wide. Examples include the East Africa rift in Kenya and Ethiopia, and the Rio
Grande rift in New Mexico. Where a divergent boundary crosses the ocean floor, the rift valley is
much narrower, only a kilometer or less across, and it runs along the top of a midoceanic ridge.
Oceanic ridges rise a kilometer or so above the ocean floor and form a global network tens of
thousands of miles long. Examples include the Mid-Atlantic ridge and the East Pacific Rise.

Plate separation is a slow process. For example, divergence along the Mid Atlantic ridge causes
the Atlantic Ocean to widen at only about 2 centimeters per year.

3|Page
Teacher Reflection and Evaluation:

______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

4|Page