Geography K–10 · Years 7–8

Tectonic plates on a tennis ball and how far Australia moves

Landscapes and landforms (ACARA Year 8 sub-strand) with Science understanding, Earth and space sciences (ACARA Year 8); NSW Stage 4 focus area Landscapes and Landforms (2015 syllabus) and Landscapes and landforms (2024 syllabus); AC9HG8K05 is cited for the causes half of its descriptor, the distribution of earthquakes and the plate motion behind them, and this entry does not address impacts on people, places and environments or the effects of responses

Practical, model not builtLow risk

This site has no interactive model of its own. Where a step or a material names a Concept Studio model, simulation or tool, it has not been built; an external simulation a step names (for example PhET) is not part of this site.

The idea

The rigid outer shell of the Earth is the lithosphere, the crust together with the strong uppermost mantle, and it is broken into plates that move over the weaker rock below; their edges are where earthquakes, volcanoes and mountain building happen, and their motion is slow but measurable.

What you need

Geoscience Australia "Plate tectonics globe tennis ball activity" template printed on paper, scissors, glue stick, one tennis ball per pair
Geoscience Australia "Plate tectonics: teacher notes and student activities" booklet (PDF) for the boundary types and evidence
Geoscience Australia GDA2020 page for the rate of plate motion (about 7 cm per year)
Ruler; the world's magnitude 5.5 and larger earthquakes for the past 30 days, taken from the USGS earthquake search (earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/search) on the day of the lesson, with the count and the exact date range written on the record sheet; a magnitude 4.5 threshold over the same month returns far more events than a class can plot by hand, so the threshold used is part of the record; the Earthquakes@GA list of recent Australian earthquakes

How to do it

Cut out and glue the plate gores onto the tennis ball following the template; trace each plate boundary in a colour by type (divergent, convergent, transform) using the booklet.
Mark the past 30 days of magnitude 5.5 and larger earthquakes from the USGS search on the ball, placing each by the place name in the list against the coastlines printed on the gores; count how many fall on or just beside a boundary line. Then mark the Australian earthquakes from Earthquakes@GA in a second colour.
Locate Australia and the boundaries to its north and east; note that Geoscience Australia describes the Australian plate as moving north-east at about 7 cm per year, into the Pacific plate and the Eurasian plate.
Using the GDA2020 rate of about 7 cm per year, compute how far the continent moved during the learners' lifetime, since the school was built, and over 1 million years.
Compare the 1994 to 2020 shift: 26 years at 7 cm per year, against the 1.8 m that Geoscience Australia reports.

What you should see

A globe on which most of the world's magnitude 5.5 and larger earthquakes for the month lie along plate boundaries, while the Australian earthquakes sit inside the plate: Geoscience Australia records on average 100 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or more in Australia each year, driven by stress from the plate's collisions to the north and east. Computed distances: 7 cm per year gives 0.91 m over 13 years, 1.82 m over 26 years (matching the 1.8 m coordinate shift Geoscience Australia gives for 1994 to 2020) and 70 km over 1 million years. It worked if the gores meet without gaps and the boundary count is stated as a fraction of the events plotted.

What changes

This activity lists no variables to change, measure and keep the same.

Common misconceptions

Each of these ideas is wrong, and the activity is a chance to test it.

Continents are fixed and only the sea level changes.
Australia has no earthquakes because it has no plate boundary.
Earthquakes happen only where plates meet.
A plate is just the crust, floating on molten rock.

Safety card

Low riskLearners carry it out

Hazards

scissors

Controls

standard classroom tool use

Note

No chemicals or heat are used. The activity is run under the school risk-assessment procedure; RiskAssess (riskassess.com.au) holds templates for school practicals and fieldwork. The NSW Department of Education Chemical Safety in Schools package is not triggered.

Curriculum references

The NSW syllabus outcomes and Australian Curriculum v9 codes this activity supports. They are references, not a verified or complete curriculum alignment.

Geography K–10 Syllabus (2015), NESA; current and taught in 2026, replaced from 2027. The outcome codes are not printed on the NESA landing page for this syllabus, which only links the document, so the url given is the syllabus document itself (geography-k-10-syllabus-2015.docx); the code and its outcome text were read in that document on 23 September 2026.GE4-2 GE4-1 GE4-7 GE4-8
Geography 7–10 Syllabus (2024), NESA; implementation from 2027, not yet taught; code read on this page on 22 September 2026GE4-PRI-01 GE4-DFC-01 GE4-TAP-01
Australian Curriculum v9AC9HG8K01AC9HG8K05AC9S8U03AC9HG8S02AC9HG8S03

Sources

The pages the author read to write this activity.

All Concept Studio activities