A rock is a time capsule – a message from the past

The new ELI today is 'A rock is a time capsule – a message from the past; bringing to life the extraordinary stories of ordinary rocks.'

When we see a rock as a bundle of evidence of how the Earth used to be, we can begin to look for the clues that tell us about its past history, and the past history of the planet. Rocks are natural time capsules and by using the ‘time capsule’ approach you can bring a rock to life in ways that will amaze pupils and adults alike.
Many other activities about bringing a rock to life can be found by using the search engine on our website.

Working out what happened during unconformity time gaps

'Filling the gap – picturing the unconformity ‘abyss of time’? Working out what happened during unconformity time gaps'.

This activity gives a good method of helping pupils to visualise the enormous time-spans between the upper and lower layers of unconformities. This exercise can be carried out for any unconformity in the field or on a photograph. You could superimpose the hand onto an unconformity photo of your own.
Many more activities can be found on our website.

World energy needs in the future

New ELI today 'What is/are the least bad option(s) for plugging the future global energy gap? A discussion on the least-damaging ways to meet world energy needs in the future'.

Given that renewable fuel sources will be unable to fulfil all global energy needs for the foreseeable future, pupils consider which of the alternative sources might plug this energy gap.
Many activities related to energy sources can be found on our website.

'Shell shake – survival of the toughest; why is the fossil record incomplete?'

Video link

Pupils deliberately smash a variety of seashells to see which ones are strong enough to remain recognisable, and which ones are so weak that they would leave little or no evidence of their existence. This leads pupils to realise that the fossil record is often biased. Many organisms are destroyed by being eaten or by being broken up into tiny fragments by moving water, or by processes of lithification of the host sediment. This lesson demonstrates that a slab of apparently well-preserved fossils may not present a true record of all that lived there, so caution is needed in reconstructing the ancient environment in its entirety.
Many more activities in the Evolution of Life category can be found on our website.