Painting with soil can be fun and educational as different minerals from underlying rocks give soils their different colours. The different colours of rivers was mentioned in one of the comments on our Soil erosion activity; click here and then on 'Extension - soil erosion'
How can this fossil of an extinct creature which lived and died in the sea, be found in rocks 5000m high in the Himalayan mountains? Find out by trying our latest Earthlearningidea 'The Himalayas in 30 seconds!' (click here).
We have just published our latest Earthlearningidea - 'Why does soil get washed away?' This is an investigation into why some farmers lose their soil through erosion and others do not. Soil erosion is a normal part of the natural rock cycle, but it can become a major problem in many rural areas where people depend on the land for their livelihood. This activity provides the opportunity to investigate some of the factors involved in limiting soil erosion.
We are very pleased that Earthlearningidea is now linked to the Norwegian Centre for Science Education. The centre supports teachers of the geosciences and undertakes research into geoscience education.
Our new activity is now on the website 'What was it like to be there - in the rocky world?' Bring a rock into the classroom that has lots of clues about how and where it formed. Ask your pupils to 'feel' what it was like to be there when the rock was being formed, e.g. swimming through a coral reef, walking in a desert, watching lava flow from a volcano.
This information has been sent to us by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers, (NAGT)Find GIS, is a new Florida GIS Data Resource site. The site includes GIS sources, Data Download Sites, FTP sites for all 67 Counties and all 418 Incorporated Areas (Cities, Towns, Villages, etc.) where available in Florida.
The Geological Society of America (GSA) has developed an educational subset of the international adventure game geocaching, called EarthCaching. People who search for EarthCaches download educational information about the sites from the EarthCache Web portal. They refer to these notes, use their GPS receivers and undertake educational tasks to enhance their Earth science literacy in the field. There are currently over 2200 EarthCaches in more than 37 countries.
Many thanks for the very useful comments received so far. These have been published on our website as extension ideas.
The first activity for 2008 has been published on our website - 'Become a fossil hunter and dig up a dinosaur'. How does a scientist set about digging up a large fossil, like a dinosaur? How can scientists ensure that they obtain the maximum evidence from their discoveries and do not accidentally destroy vital clues?
'Earth science for society' from Geoscientist,Volume 18, January 2008. Eduardo de Mulder, Executive Director of the UN International Year of Planet Earth, (IYPE) wishes the planet a happy new Year.Earthlearningideas are Earth-related activities giving school children and students all over the world the opportunity to carry out simple activities which will enable them to understand how our planet works. From January 7th we shall be publishing one activity per week so by the end of 2008, you will have a huge bank of ideas with topics ranging from Natural Hazards to Resources and Environment. To view the 5 activities already published click here.
Please send us your comments via this blog or to info@earthlearningidea.com when you have tried any of the activities with your pupils.