Earth Puzzle Activity: Past, Future, and Biodiversity

Abstract

The Earth has changed geologically throughout the last 4.6 billion years since it was formed. Because these changes happen at an extremely slow pace, they are hard to notice in a human lifetime and hard to learn about. The objective of the study is to delineate the design of the “Earth Puzzle Activity,” created to enhance comprehension of continental changes in the Earth’s geological structure, in accordance with the ADDIE model, and to present the data acquired from its execution. The study utilized the design and development process and included 15 third-year pre-service teachers from various disciplines who were enrolled in an elective Natural History course during the Fall semester of the 2024–2025 academic year. During the evaluation phase, the last stage in the ADDIE design paradigm, content analysis was used to look at answers to two open-ended questions. The results indicated that participants were able to describe the interlocking nature of continents, recognize possible relationships between continental drift and biodiversity, provide evidence-based explanations regarding these processes, and generate predictions about future continental configurations. These findings suggest that the Earth Puzzle Activity may support participants’ understanding of continental change and biodiversity-related concepts. However, since the evaluation was based on responses to two open-ended questions, the findings should be interpreted cautiously and as reflections of participants’ expressed understandings rather than direct measures of learning gains or scientific thinking skills.