Monday, 27 March 2023

Let's search for gold!

'Gold prospectors; panning for ‘gold’ in river sediment'.

 

This ELI investigates how prospectors use the property of density to search for gold in river sediments.The technique is still actively used across the world where minerals are exploited, on a wide range of scales.

The activity is aimed at ages 5 and upwards but if you are searching for science ideas for younger children, you could explore 'ELI Early years'.
 

Monday, 20 March 2023

More mineral identification

The new ELI today is the second in our Picturing minerals activity, 'Picturing Minerals -2; visualise and draw minerals from a verbal description'.

This could form a useful revision activity, once pupils have studied minerals. Pupils are required to describe what they see accurately so their partner can draw and, hopefully, identify the mineral. It is not always very easy!

Click here for many more ELIs about Minerals.



Monday, 13 March 2023

Modelling plate margins with a Mars (TM) Bar – apart, together and side by side

Have you tried 'Mars (TM) margins – diverged, converged and transformed; modelling plate margins with a Mars (TM) Bar – apart, together and side by side'?

This is a popular activity with pupils for obvious reasons! It demonstrates the three types of plate margins, their stress fields and characteristics.

Lots more ELIs related to plate tectonics can be found here.
 

Monday, 6 March 2023

Know your minerals

The new ELI today is another in our popular 'picturing' series: 'Picturing Minerals-1; visualise and draw minerals from a verbal description'.

 

This activity enhances pupils’ skills of description and interpretation using photographs of minerals. It could form a useful revision activity - and it is fun!

More ELIs about Minerals can be found in the Earth Materials category.

Monday, 27 February 2023

'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. By using the ‘time capsule’ approach you can bring a rock to life in ways that will amaze pupils and adults alike.

The ELI category 'Visualising deep time' has related activities and activities about rocks generally can be found here.

Monday, 20 February 2023

What sedimentary rocks can tell us about sea level change

The new ELI today is part 2 of 'Walther’s law of sedimentation – teaching it the Lego TM way: How does a relative fall in sea level affect a vertical sequence of sediments?'

This ELI is a hands-on demonstration of a key principle in sedimentology and stratigraphy, to show how a relative fall in sea level can result in the development of a ‘coarsening-upwards’ sequence.

Click here for other ELIs about stratigraphy and the sequencing of events.