PLATE TECTONICS AND COOKIES
Objective: to demonstrate how the plates of the lithosphere move along the asthenosphere
while interacting with each other/
Materials:
Lab Sheet
Pencil/Pen
1 Cookie
Pre-Lab:
The Layers of the Earth Meet The Layers of the Cookie:
Please draw a picture of your cookie in the box (right) and label it using the vocabulary words provided (left)
Lithosphere
Asthenosphere
Lower Mantle
Lab Procedures:
1. Read all directions before beginning, read the entire step before completing. Answer
questions as they come up within the lab, the complete the post lab.
2. Remove the upper cookie (slight “twisting” may be required).
3. Slide the upper cookie over the creamy filling. In terms of plate tectonics, what does
this demonstrate?
4. Break the upper cookie in half. As you break the cookie, listen to the sound it makes.
What does this sound represent?
5. To simulate the first type of boundary, press down on the two broken cookie halves and
slide them apart. The creamy filling may “flow” upward. What type of plate boundary
does this represent?
6. What would the upward flow of cream filling represent? (what flows out of the
asthenosphere?)
7. To simulate the next type of boundary, push one cookie piece beneath the other. What
type of plate boundary does this represent?
8. To simulate the last type of boundary, slide the two cookie pieces past each other, over
the cream filling. What type of plate boundary does this represent?
Describe the movement of the “plates” during this simulation
Post- Lab:
1. How is the creamy filling similar to the asthenosphere?
2. In which simulation did the “lithosphere” stick/dig in the “asthenosphere”?
3. During which steps did you hear the cookies rubbing against each other? Based on your
answer from step #4, what did this represent?
4. In this lab your hands moved the plates, but what do scientists believe causes the plates
to move in real life?