Modelling the phases of the Moon with Jaffa cakes!

Have you tried 'Jaffa Moon' in which you model the phases of the Moon using Jaffa cakes? Having discovered how the light part of the Moon changes shape over a lunar month, pupils are asked to reinforce this learning by cutting Jaffa cakes into shapes to simulate the light part of the Moon. By placing these on second dark-side-up Jaffa Cakes, they can see how the dark part of the Moon changes shape at the same time. They then test their understanding by identifying correct versions of predictive sentences which are provided.
This is one of a number of Earthlearningideas about the Moon; all can be found on the website.

Play the evolution game

New ELI today 'How many Beany Beetles? - the evolution game; investigating evolution by adaptation and natural selection'

Pupils can:
• appreciate that, because the green Beany Beetles are better camouflaged than the brown, they will be less likely to be eaten by the birds;
• suggest that by being green, the Beany Beetles have adapted to their environment;
• realise that this adaptation will be inherited by future generations of Beany Beetles;
• appreciate that chance plays a part in evolution. In this game the number one means that a green Beany Beetle is eaten. If the one occurs more times than usual, then the green colour will not be such an advantage;
Following on from the ELI 'How many Great Great Great Great Grandparents? - finding out how we inherit our characteristics' this game provides an introduction to the theory of evolution and is a useful activity for cross-curricular work covering science, geography, literacy, numeracy and art.
Other activities for teaching this topic can be found on our website.

Evolution of life in 60 seconds

Have you tried the activity 'Time-line in your own backyard'?

This is part of our 'Evolution' series. We have also published this video clip created by Claire Evans for Darwin 200 to accompanythe activity.

Evolution of the Life on Earth in 60 seconds

Over the next few weeks, we shall be publishing more exciting Earthlearningideas to help teachers with this topic. Next week there will be a game with Beany Beetles to show adaptation and natural selection.

How do we inherit our characteristics?

 Our 200th Earthlearningidea is 'How many Great Great Great Great Grandparents? - finding out how we inherit our characteristics'

This ELI involves a class discussion about numbers of ancestors and how these affect our make-up.
In teaching about evolution, pupils first need to know how organisms inherit their characteristics. This activity helps them to do this. They can then
tackle the idea of Darwin’s ‘survival of the fittest’ for example by trying our next Earthlearningidea, ‘How
many Beany Beetles? - the evolution game: investigating evolution by adaptation and natural selection’. This will be published on January 19th