(Developed at UTIG by Tom Hughes, Katherine Ellins, Hilary Olson, and Lisa Gahagan)

Time Frame - 1 hour plus

Materials

• Colored plates
• 4 players
• Game board
• Record sheet
• Sticky dots in red, green, blue, and yellow (available at Office Depot)

Instructions and Rules

1. Four Players may play the game.  One round of 4 plays represents one reconstruction.  The maximum number of reconstructions allowed is 4.
2. Each player selects on of the colored circular pieces.  Each different colored circular piece represents a tectonic plate.  Each plate is two-toned, with the darker shade representing oceanic crust, and the lighter side representing continental crust.
3. The game board consists of 9 numbered squares, each with a north arrow.
4. The order of taking turns to move the tectonic plates is red, yellow, green, and blue.
5. To begin the game, set up the 4 tectonic plates so that they are all on adjacent squares with the north arrows of the plates all pointing up towards the top of the game board.  The top of the board is north.  One pie wedge of a tectonic plate should be aligned with another pie wedge on the adjacent plate.  the way in which they are arranged will represent the initial global plate tectonic configuration.  The configuration that they choose may, or may non, contain a large supercontinent.
6. Each player marks his/her plate with  the color of every adjacent plate by placing a stick colored dot of the same color on his/her plate.  Place the colored dot in the innermost concentric circle (next to the center) in the pie wedge pointing towards the adjacent plate.
7. When all four players have completed the first round of moves, record the positions of the plates on the record sheet.  This is the first (oldest) reconstruction.
8. Now start the second reconstruction by moving the plates in order (the player with the red plate moves first, then the player with the yellow plate goes second, next green, and last, blue).
9. Move the plates one at a time one space in any direction as long as the destination is unoccupied.  Plates may remain in place if there are no open spaces, or as long as they remain adjacent to at least one other plate.

10. After each move, mark each plate with colored sticky dots that match the colors of adjacent plates. The sticky dots should be placed within the pie wedges pointing towards touching plates. After the second reconstruction (second round of plays), the colored dots should be placed in the concentric circle outside the previous one. Remember to record the new positions on the record sheet after each reconstruction.

11. Repeat 2 more times to complete 4 reconstructions (that is 4 rounds of plays), the maximum number of reconstructions allowed in the game. Record the new positions on the record sheet after each reconstruction.

12. When you have finished, write number of the final the board position of each plate on the plate itself and trade plates with another team. The other team will attempt to retrace your steps while you try to retrace theirs.

13. Try to retrace the steps of the team with which you traded. First, reassemble their plates into the final position that they achieved, then begin working backwards. REMEMBER THAT YOU SHOULD BE MOVING IN THE REVERSE ORDER OF THE PREVIOUS TEAM. Use another record sheet to keep track of your work, and mark an X on the colored dots as you go. As you go backwards, you must move the tectonic plate pieces in reverse order: blue, green, yellow, and red.

14. When you have finished, check your record sheet against that of the team with which you traded.

Note:  If you cannot get the plates in their proper matching configuration using only one move per play, it suggests that your previous configuration was incorrect. Did you follow the rules? In reality, the "rules" may not be well known. Thus, one of the lessons of this game is that it may be impossible to determine the past completely without additional data. For this reason, scientists often have multiple working hypotheses when the boundary conditions are not well known.

For less advanced students, change the rules to allow only two or three reconstructions, and outlaw staying in one place, or one configuration.

Formative Assessment

1. The Plate Tectonic Cycle - For each move, the presenter/teacher may ask the players (participants/students) to consider (a) whether the move resulted in extension (pulling apart) or collision, and (b) the type of geologic processes that would occur.

2. There is another, different type of boundary also present in addition to extensional and collisional boundaries. Ask the players to describe it.  Answer: Translational.

3. Ask the players to introduce elements of the geologic time scale by assigning geologic ages to the concentric circles. The oldest time period would be the innermost circle. Players may number the concentric circles 1 - 4 from the innermost circle to the outermost circle. 

Game Pieces (click for larger versions)