Planning Fieldwork and considering safety

The two ELIs today are dealing with fieldwork, the first is about planning to obtain the best outcomes and the second is about safety.

(1) "The ‘What makes a good educational experience’ approach to planning fieldwork; thinking through the fieldwork strategies that are most likely to inform and inspire".

(2) "The ‘What could hurt you here?’ approach to field safety; teaching how to keep safe during fieldwork and other outdoor activities".

The first activity considers what is it that makes a good educational experience. This then becomes a means of generating a checklist to evaluate pupil fieldwork experiences.

The second activity suggests ways to introduce fieldwork safety in ways that the group is likely to remember.

Many more activities related to fieldwork can be found in 'Fieldwork' in our Investigating the Earth category

Identifying rocks when you're out and about

 If you are out for a walk and see some rocks, do you wonder what they are? Here are some questions to ask yourself, 'Questions for any rock face 4: rock group (sedimentary or igneous): what questions about the type of rock might be asked at any rock exposure?'

This field activity helps people to ask questions to help distinguish between sedimentary and igneous rocks. There are many Earthlearningideas about asking questions when looking at rocks. They can be found in 'Fieldwork' in our Investigating the Earth category.

Flood through the window

Following the devastating effects of the floods in Texas, our ELI today is 'Flood through the window - what would you see, how would you feel? Pupils picture for themselves what a major flood through the window might look like.'

This activity encourages pupils to really think about flooding and what it would be like to be caught in a sudden flash flood. The ELI gives a series of questions to help pupils realise the effects and their possible consequences.

Related activities can be found in our Natural Hazards category.

Relative dating of rocks

Our new ELI today is '‘Photo dating’; using photos to simulate the relative dating of the rock record.'

This activity has been devised to demonstrate the principles behind relative dating using zone fossils by substituting photographs, taken over a period of time within the experience of the students.

Related activities can be found in our Geological Time category.

Geological time

We continue our series investigating geological time with '‘Looking so far into the Abyss of Time’; how to visualise the immensity of geological time...with a rope!'.

This ELI is an exercise to demonstrate the extent of geological time-scales and the need for meaningful geological reference points, obtained from fossils and other geological events, recorded in the rock record.

Go to 'Visualising deep time' in our Geological Time category for other related activities.

How do we know the actual age of rocks?

The ELI today continues our theme of geological (deep) time  with 'But how old is it? Investigating radioactive dating of rocks and minerals'.

This activity investigates how radioactive (radiometric) or absolute dating of rocks and minerals works.

Related activities can be found in our Geological Time category - Visualising deep time.

Helping to understand geological time

Continuing our theme of geological time, the ELI today is 'The origin of the Earth – at arm’s length: the age of the Earth - with a good stretch of imagination.'

This activity teaches the great length of geological time in a fun way. It could be used to reinforce other methods of helping pupils to understand the concept of “deep time”, e.g. during a quick-fire revision session.

Related activities can be found in our Visualising Deep time, Geological Time category.