Earth science out-of-doors

Try our latest Earthlearningidea 'Earth science out of doors:preserving the evidence'.
This activity involves taking the class outside, to an area with some bare soil exposed, and perhaps some grass. Explain that we are going to look around us at familiar surroundings, but that we will think about what evidence of the present day might possibly become preserved in the geological record. This involves trying to think of processes that are happening now and the evidence for those processes happening. Which of these pieces of evidence might be preserved if the area were buried under sediment?
The usual geologist's approach is to use Lyell's principle that 'the present is the key to the past'. This activity involves geological reasoning in reverse, i.e. trying to predict the future from the present. Concerns about global climate change have recently involved geologists trying to predict the future from the past.