For the next few weeks, we will be considering geological time. The ELI today is 'The toilet roll of time; make a geological timeline to take home'.
This activity has been devised to address the common lack of knowledge about geological time. Research has shown that many people have no idea of the great length of geological time nor of the order of the key events during the geological history of the Earth.
Related activities can be found in our Geological Time category, Visualising deep time.
Our new ELI today is the 9th in our Essential Minerals series - 'Essential Minerals for the Green Revolution – 9 Critical Minerals for the USA'
This Earthlearningidea defines the purpose of a national critical minerals list for the current and future needs of the USA’s industries and technology. This activity could form an extension of the ELI series on metal ores which are essential for the “new” technologies as well as the growth of existing industries.
Related activities can be found in our Minerals category.
We continue our theme of Essential Minerals for the Green Revolution with 'Rare Earth Elements; vital components in modern technology'.
This activity could be used in a lesson on the need to identify and exploit rare earth minerals in vital applications in many different fields, ranging from optics to energy saving devices and medical equipment. They are particularly important as catalysts in industrial processes and in the manufacture of strong magnets.
Other related activities can be found in our Minerals category.
Our ELI today is 'Essential Minerals for the Green Revolution – 6 “The Three Ts”; Tin, Tungsten and Tantalum'.
This ELI involves contrasting good practice in extracting essential minerals with illegal mining. It includes a brief survey of world production of the “Three Ts”.
Related activities can be found in our Minerals and Mining and the Green Revolution categories.
We thought you would enjoy a fun activity as we end our magnetism and plate tectonics series. 'Hands on magnetic stripes; demonstrating how oceanic ridge magnetic stripes form, with several pairs of hands'.
Related activities can be found in our Plate tectonics and Magnetism categories.
Today's new ELI is 'Mapping Magnetic Anomalies; modelling the palaeomagnetic evidence for plate tectonic boundaries on the ocean floor'.
This ELI involves modelling plate boundaries (divergent and transform) from a simulated geomagnetic data survey. Students can describe how the pattern of magnetic stripes was collected from ocean exploration surveys and they can identify evidence of plate boundaries from the pattern of palaeomagnetic anomalies. They can also explain that magnetic anomalies and magnetic stripes are associated with reversals in the Earth’s geomagnetic field.
Related activities can be found in the following topics on our website, Magnetism, Plate tectonics and Oceanography.
Our ELI today is 'Human magnets! - modelling ancient and modern magnetic fields, using your pupils'.
