Earth and Space Science · California Grade 7

MS-ESS2-3

Analyze and interpret data on the distribution of fossils and rocks, continental shapes, and seafloor structures to provide evidence of the past plate motions.

Clarification statement: Examples of data include similarities of rock and fossil types on different continents, the shapes of the continents (including continental shelves), and the locations of ocean structures (such as ridges, fracture zones, and trenches).

Assessment boundary: Paleomagnetic anomalies in oceanic and continental crust are not assessed.

Source: California Department of Education, NGSS Preferred Integrated Course Model, Grade 7 (accessed 2026-10-18)

Chapters

Chapter 16: Earth's Tectonic Platesassesses

This is the lesson's performance expectation. Lab 1, Lab 3, W5, W6 and W8 ask students to read distributions of fossils and rock belts, the fit of simplified landmass shapes, and simulated seafloor age-distance data, and to argue from that data that plates have moved. Paleomagnetic stripes are mentioned only as history (teacher notes, the timeline slide and the W3 passage) and never assessed, in line with the assessment boundary.

Chapter 25: Volcanic Eruptions and Earthquakessupports

Plotting earthquakes and volcanoes in Lab 1 reveals the plate boundaries and the direction a plate is sinking, which is background evidence for plate motion. Lesson 16 is where this PE is assessed; here it supports reasoning about why hazards cluster where they do.

Worksheets (17)

Chapter	Worksheet	Role	How it connects
Ch. 9	W8 · Evidence Jigsaw: Twelve Clues to Earth's Past Collaborative investigation	supports	Cards 5, 11 and 3 use the distribution of fossils and rocks across continents, marine fossils on a mountain range and glacial scratches as evidence of past plate motion and surface change, the Grade 7 data this PE names.
Ch. 16	W1 · Leaves Under the Ice: Fossils Antarctica Should Not Have Phenomenon exploration	practice	Students meet the distribution of fossils across continents as a puzzle and start forming an explanation; this activates the evidence-interpretation practice without yet producing a full analysis toward the PE.
Ch. 16	W2 · Things, Processes and Ideas: Sorting the Language of Moving Plates Vocabulary in action	supports	Students need precise language for ridges, trenches, shelves and seafloor spreading before they can read data about those structures as evidence of plate motion. This sheet builds that language; it does not yet ask students to interpret data.
Ch. 16	W3 · The Idea That Waited Fifty Years: From Wegener to Plate Tectonics Reading with evidence	supports	The passage gives the history behind the fossil, rock, shape and seafloor evidence that the PE asks students to analyze. It is background for the data tasks in Worksheets 5, 6 and 8 rather than a data analysis itself.
Ch. 16	W4 · From Ridge to Trench: Reading and Drawing the Life of Seafloor Diagrams and models	practice	Reading a cross-section of ridge, aging seafloor and trench builds the model students need to interpret seafloor structures and age data as evidence of plate motion. The diagram shows the process; the assessed data analysis comes in Worksheets 5 and 6.
Ch. 16	W5 · Drill Cores Across Ridge R: Age, Distance and a Spreading Rate Data and graphing	assesses	Students analyze and interpret a seafloor age-distance dataset, graph it, compute a rate and argue from the pattern that the plates on each side have moved apart. This is the seafloor-structures half of the PE; no magnetic data are used, in line with the assessment boundary.
Ch. 16	W6 · Were They Ever One? A Claim-Evidence-Reasoning Case for Two Continents Claim, evidence, reasoning	assesses	Students interpret all four kinds of data named in the PE and construct an evidence-based argument that the plates carrying two continents have moved apart. The seafloor evidence uses drill-core ages and structures, not magnetic data, in line with the assessment boundary.
Ch. 16	W7 · Fixing Dani's Quiz: Eight Statements About Moving Plates Error analysis	practice	Several of the errors are misreadings of the evidence the PE asks students to interpret (where the youngest seafloor lies, what earthquake belts show, what Wegener's evidence was). Diagnosing and correcting them builds the interpretation skill without producing a full data analysis.
Ch. 16	W8 · The Evidence Jury: Twelve Clues, Two Eras, One Verdict Collaborative investigation	assesses	Each card is a real data pattern of the kind the PE names (fossil and rock distributions, continental shapes, seafloor structures and ages). Students interpret what each pattern shows, rank how strongly it supports plate motion, and argue from the whole set; the individual section produces written evidence toward the PE.
Ch. 16	W9 · Plan the Drilling Voyage: Six Holes to Test a Spreading Ridge Transfer and design	practice	To choose sites, students must know what pattern of seafloor ages spreading predicts and what pattern would reject it. Designing the test builds the interpretation the PE assesses in Worksheets 5 and 6.
Ch. 16	W10 · Mastery Check: Evidence, Plates and Rates Retrieval and mastery check	assesses	Items ask students to identify which patterns in fossils, rocks, shapes and seafloor structures count as evidence of plate motion and to read those patterns correctly; the synthesis asks them to argue from several lines of evidence. No magnetic data are used.
Ch. 25	W1 · Fifteen Seconds and Fifty-Nine Days: Two Hazards, Two Kinds of Warning Phenomenon exploration	supports	Part B asks students to recall the two kinds of plate boundary from Lesson 16 (a sinking plate and two plates sliding past each other) as background for why these hazards happened where they did.
Ch. 25	W3 · Forecasting a Fault: How California Plans for Quakes No One Can Predict Reading with evidence	supports	The passage explains California's earthquakes as the result of two plates sliding past each other at a plate boundary, the idea students built in Lesson 16. It uses that plate motion as background and does not ask students to reconstruct past plate motions.
Ch. 25	W4 · California's Restless Edge: Modeling Where Magma and Earthquakes Come From Diagrams and models	supports	Students draw a trench and a sinking plate and explain why earthquake depths trace the plate, using the seafloor structures and plate boundaries from Lesson 16. Plate motion is background here; the sheet does not ask students to reconstruct past plate motions.
Ch. 25	W7 · Fixing Marisol's Hazard Report: Ten Claims, Eight Errors Error analysis	supports	Two of the claims are about where volcanoes and earthquakes cluster along plate boundaries and why. Students use plate-boundary knowledge from Lesson 16 as background to correct them; past plate motions are not assessed.
Ch. 25	W8 · California Hazard Briefing: A Twelve-Card Jigsaw Collaborative investigation	supports	Expert set C links hazards to the transform boundary, the Cascadia subduction zone and the exceptions (a hot spot and a fault inside a plate), using plate-boundary ideas from Lesson 16 as background.
Ch. 25	W10 · Volcanic Eruptions and Earthquakes: Mastery Check Retrieval and mastery check	supports	Items q1 and q11 use plate-boundary types from Lesson 16 to explain where magma forms and why earthquake depths differ. They check background knowledge rather than reconstructing past plate motions.

Labs (4)

Chapter	Lab	Role	How it connects
Ch. 16	Lab 1 · The Torn Map: Which Fit Do the Fossils Allow? Evidence-based mystery	assesses	Students analyze where fossil and rock markings fall along landmass edges, test whether they continue across a join, and argue from that pattern that the pieces were once connected and have since moved apart. This is the fossil-and-rock half of the PE; seafloor structures are handled in Labs 2 and 3.
Ch. 16	Lab 2 · The Paper Seafloor: Pull a Ridge Apart and Read Its Age Bands Physical model	practice	Students generate the age-with-distance pattern themselves and state what the real seafloor data must look like if spreading is real. This builds the interpretation skill the PE requires; Lab 3 then applies it to a dataset, which is where the PE is assessed.
Ch. 16	Lab 3 · Where Should the Drill Ship Go? Spend the Budget to Test Spreading Data-driven decision	assesses	Students analyze age-versus-distance data from both sides of a ridge, interpret the symmetric increase as evidence that seafloor has formed at the ridge and moved outward, and use the pattern to make and test predictions. This is the seafloor-structure half of the PE; the data are simulated and labeled as such, and paleomagnetic evidence is not used.
Ch. 25	Lab 1 · The Unlabeled Map: Find the Hidden Plate Boundaries Evidence-based mystery	supports	The plotted belts reveal a spreading ridge, a trench with a sinking plate and a transform boundary, and the cross-section shows the direction one plate is moving. This supports the plate-motion evidence assessed in Lesson 16 but is not the main target here.