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Did you know that Pangaea was once a supercontinent? Find out how to use ExploreLearning Gizmos to teach your students all about it with our virtual simulation. https://www.explorelearning.com/user_area/content_media/raw/building-pangaea-gizmo.gif
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Teaching Students About Pangea With Virtual Simulations

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Teaching Students About Pangea With Virtual...

Millions of years ago, Earth didn’t have seven continents. There was one giant continent called Pangaea. What was Pangaea? It was a supercontinent, incorporating almost all of Earth’s land masses. A single ocean called Panthalassa surrounded Pangaea.

German meteorologist and geophysicist Alfred Wegener proposed the concept of Pangaea and the idea of moving continents, called continental drift. This idea led to the modern theory of plate tectonics, when movements happen on top of an underlying mantle within the planet made of flowing, hot lava.

Illustration of 2 world maps showing the before and after of the Continental Drift

 
Using Online Simulations to Teach Students About Pangaea

Virtual simulations like ExploreLearning Gizmos allow students to create their own versions of Pangaea by fitting together Earth’s puzzle-like pieces. Virtual labs and simulations enable students to experiment and draw conclusions about topics that would not be possible otherwise, such as Pangaea and plate tectonics. Online simulations, such as the Building Pangaea Gizmo, save time and reduce materials, too.

Ready to elevate your science lessons?

You can share these impactful learning experiences with your students, too. The new interactive Gizmos Investigations are launching in fall 2025! Be the first to know about the product release and learn more about bringing Gizmos Investigations to your classroom.

Discover Gizmos Investigations


Teaching Pangaea Gizmo

Every Gizmo, including the Building Pangaea Gizmo, has lesson planning materials with teacher guides, vocabulary sheets, and student worksheets. With resources for grades 3-12, it is the perfect online simulation for teaching Pangaea.

Building Pagaea Gizmo

Through activities in Gizmos, students learn the names of significant landmasses and analyze the theory of continental drift. They can fit the landmasses together like a puzzle to form an ancient supercontinent called Pangaea, using several types of evidence, including fossils, rocks, and glaciers, to revise their model of Pangaea.

Are you ready to teach Pangaea with your students? Here’s the Gizmo you’re looking for.

Let’s Build Pangaea

  

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© 2025 ExploreLearning. All rights reserved. Gizmo and Gizmos are registered trademarks of ExploreLearning. STEM Cases, Handbooks and the associated Realtime Reporting System are protected by US Patent No. 10,410,534

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© 2025 ExploreLearning. All rights reserved. Gizmo and Gizmos are registered trademarks of ExploreLearning. STEM Cases, Handbooks and the associated Realtime Reporting System are protected by US Patent No. 10,410,534

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