In this latest Earthlearningidea, pupils are asked to think about which sorts of power source could be built in the view through the window - before considering which of them should be built there. Is anyone a NIMBY?
The new Earthlearningidea for this week is 'Why does the sun disappear? Demonstrate what happens when the Moon hides the Sun.' This activity demonstrates how a small object, which is near, can block out the view of a much larger object that is further away. Do your pupils think that the Sun and the Moon often appear to be the same size in the sky? They are not the same size at all and yet the Moon can block out the Sun completely so that it goes quite dark - - solar eclipse or total eclipse of the Sun.
Our latest Earthlearningidea is 'Carbon cycle through the window; how much evidence of the carbon cycle can you see through the window?' Ask your pupils to look through a window or doorway and answer these questions:
The new Earthlearningidea is about groundwater 'From rain to spring: water from the ground'. The activity demonstrates how water flows through the ground and how it can be used and how it can be polluted. All you need for this innovative idea is a plastic container, some plastic cups, some washed sand, a spoon and some 'waste'.
The latest Earthlearningidea is 'Environmental detective; imagining how the evidence of modern environments could become preserved' This is an imaginative exercise in thinking about where different environments might occur on a tropical desert coast and how the evidence might become preserved in a sequence of rocks. In their imagination, pupils look at four different modern environments. All four of these environments existed millions of years ago too. In each environment, the sediments that were being deposited contain clues to that environment. The evidence may be preserved when the loose sediments are turned into rock. Your pupils are asked to be detectives and look at photos of the four environments and work out which photo applies to which environment.
The latest activity 'Rock cycle through the window: the rock cycle processes you might be able to see - and those you can't' has just been published on our new website.
Try our new Earthlearningidea 'Squeezed out of shape: detecting the distortion after rocks have been affected by Earth movements' Ask your pupils if we can ever tell by how much a rock has been squeezed by Earth movements. One way is to look at fossils in deformed rocks. The original shapes of these are usually well known, so they can be used to work out the extent to which they have been deformed. If the fossils have been deformed, then so has the rock in which they are found.
We tried this activity, 'A time-line in your own backyard' using toilet paper for the geological time-line: with a roll of 600 segments we covered the evolution of pluricellular life (1 segment = 1 million years). The positioning of milestones along the time-line is a good starting point for discussion. You only need a school-yard, good weather and no wind. These students are 16 years old and enjoyed the activity.
'How could I become fossilised? Thinking through fossilisation in the context of me or you' is the latest Earthlearningidea. The pupils are asked to consider what would happen if someone in their class fell into a nearby river or the sea and died. How might they become fossilised? Inevitably, the story of decay is a bit gruesome but you can steer the pupils to the answers. The best chances of fossilisation are where there is no activity to drag the body along, where there is no oxygen so that animals that might eat the body and bacteria that might rot the body can't live. The best chances of getting these conditions occur if the body is buried. If you want to be a fossil, don't fall into a river or the sea, ask to be buried! You need to be buried in impermeable ground like mud or clay that will keep water and oxygen out - like the man shown in the image above. He died more than 6000 years ago and was buried in a bog (Tollund Man from Denmark). Unfortunately, he isn't 10,000 years old and so is too young to be a true fossil.
As you may have seen, the latest upgrade of pbwiki has changed our website. Please note that you do NOT need to log in and all the pdfs are still FREE to download. Let us know if you have any problems.
Click here to view the latest activity 'Earthquake prediction - when will the earthquake strike?' In this activity we model how forces acting in the Earth can build up stresses, which are suddenly released when rocks fail (fracture). This activity could form part of a lesson on earthquakes and their effects, leading to an understanding of the difficulties faced by civil authorities in clearing an earthquake-prone district in time to prevent casualties. It is also a useful application of the theory of forces.
We have received some thought-provoking queries via YouTube about the video used to illustrate the Earthlearningidea, 'The Himalayas in 30 seconds'. We have responded in full to the questions in 'Extension ideas' which accompany this activity.
The latest Earthlearningidea is 'Rocks to eat? How we get the elements we need to stay healthy'. Like all living things, we need many chemical elements in order to be healthy. These elements come from minerals in the soil and the soil gets the minerals from the rocks beneath. This activity explores how these elements reach us and other living things.
This activity is great fun to try - 'Cracking the clues: making your own cracking clues to the Earth's past'.
Click here to view the latest Earthlearningidea - 'Weathering - rocks breaking up and breaking down'. In this activity pupils are asked to match pictures and descriptions of weathered rocks with the processes of weathering that formed them.
Since Earthlearningidea started in May 2007, we have had just over 8000 visits to the site from 112 countries. We have published maps showing the countries and cities where Earthlearningidea activities have been viewed. As you can see from the map, there is a large area in Africa that we have not reached. Can anyone help? Contact us via this blog or by email.
This our latest Earthlearningidea - click here. This activity investigates the relationship between the depth of water in a tank and the velocity of a water wave generated by lifting and then dropping one end of the tank.
'Space survival: how could we survive a year in a dome?' is our latest Earthlearningidea.
News from Italy - "Yesterday, the Italian Teachers' Association ran a workshop in Bologna to spread Earthlearningidea activities. Six activities were presented in two hours. There were 29 teachers from secondary schools (mainly from Emilia, Romagna and Toscana) and they enjoyed the workshop and the interactive methodology (which was quite new to us, who are more used to frontal lectures). I used a small questionnaire at the end to find out if they liked the
Metamorphism - that's Greek for 'change of shape' isn't it? This is our latest Earth-related activity.
Because Earthlearningidea has been so successful and continues to attract new users, we have decided to continue publishing the activities into 2009 but we should like some new ideas from you.
We have received the following information from Italy:-
We have just published another of our popular 'through the window' activities. Click here to see 'An eruption through the window; how could an eruption transform your view - lava, ash, lahar or something worse? Picture a large volcano to the left of the window - how would your view be affected by an eruption of the volcano? Different volcanoes erupt differently and the view could be transformed in different ways depending on the type of eruption. For each type of eruption, ask yourselves:
In our latest Earthlearningidea, the diagram shows how oil and gas are formed, how they become trapped in the ground and how they may be extracted. Pupils are asked to list the events in the correct order and are given sentences to help. They are also asked to explain how oil and gas might escape from the trap on the right and what would happen if the fault brought the limestone on the right into contact with the sandstone on the left. Lastly they explain what sorts of rock they would be looking for if they were searching for oil and gas.
Click here for our latest Earthlearningidea, 'What is geological history'. This activity encourages pupils to use simple stratigraphic principles to work out a sequence of events to reveal a geological history. The cartoon diagram given shows, in a simple way, the geological history of the UK. This activity is especially good when combined with Earthlearningidea 'Laying down the principles'.
Click here to view our latest Earthlearningidea about the carbon cycle.
Why do some lavas flow further and more quickly than others? Find out by trying our latest Earthlearningidea 'See how they run'.
'What was it like to be there? - bringing a fossil to life' is our latest Earthlearningidea.
'Quarry through the window - what would you see, what would you not see?' This is our latest Earthlearningidea - click here to view the activity in English. It can also be found in Spanish in the 'Resources and Environment' category (Recursos y Medio Ambiente) - click here.
Dinosaur death- did it die or was it killed? Was this a Cretaceous crime scene? - using rock and fossil forensic evidence to find out. This is our latest Earthlearningidea - click here to view this exciting new activity. A large fossil skeleton has been found in rocks near your school. Did the animal die naturally or was it attacked and killed? Use your detective skills to investigate what really happened long ago. Pupils use evidence from rocks and fossils to build up a picture of how the dinosaur died - like a detective builds up a case from a crime scene.
Our new Earthlearningidea 'Flood through the window - what would you see, how would you feel?' is now available on our website - click here to view.
This map, produced by Google analytics, shows the countries where Earthlearningideas have been viewed. The darker the shading, the more visits to the site. The blog has been visited 6190 times since it began in May last year and we have reached 101 countries.
Simulate your own volcanic eruption by using either of the two methods explained in this activity - soapsuds volcano and coke volcano. Before either of the demonstrations, try asking the pupils what they think causes the lava to come out of a volcano.
The Space within - the porosity of rocks. For this Earthlearningidea, the pupils make a sedimentary rock by packing any roughly sphere-shaped things of the same size, e.g. oranges or marbles, into a suitable container. The oranges or marbles are like the grains which make up a sedimentary rock, like sand grains in a sandstone.
Try our latest Earthlearningidea - 'A time-line in your own backyard'. Pupils are told that the string time-line represents the 4600 million years since the Earth was formed. The pupils are then asked to lay out the pictures in the order in which they think the organisms first appeared in the geological record. They then peg the events on to the string at the time when they think the organism first appeared.
This is our latest Earthlearningidea - detecting ore the Archimedes way by measuring density using a stick, string, a ruler, a bucket and a bottle of water. This activity shows that fairly sophisticated measurements can sometimes be made with very simple apparatus.
Our latest activity is 'Salt of the Earth; who can make the biggest salt crystal?'
A new work group on Earth Science education has been formed in Italy, as a sub group of the teachers' association (ANISN). The work group is called ANISN-DST. One of the plans of the group is to translate some activities from the Earthlearningidea website into Italian. The plan is that each teacher translates one idea, a university teacher checks the translation, and then the translation is sent to Earthlearningidea for publication on the website. Next school year every teacher will try to use one or more Earthlearningidea activities in school. In September a workshop will be organised where every teacher shows an activity to the others, as a way of involving new teachers in the workgroup.
Our latest activity is 'Fossil or not?' It is a discussion about what is a fossil and what is not.
Try our latest activity - 'Make your own rock; investigating how loose sediment may be stuck together to form a 'rock'' To become hard rocks, most sediments need to be cemented together. This idea can be tested with a variety of 'cements'. Pupils can demonstrate how 'rocks' are made by compacting and cementing loose sand. This activity is very popular in the UK - let us know how it is received in other countries.
An extension idea has been sent from the Faculty of Applied Sciences, South Eastern University of Sri Lanka for our Earthlearningidea 'Permeability of Soil - the great soil race'.
Try our latest Earthlearningidea 'Earth science out of doors:preserving the evidence'.
This progress is good but, as you can see, we haven't reached many large centres of population in South America, Africa, Russia or China. Can you help us to spread the ideas?
We have added the ideas received in a comment on this activity to an 'extension' file on the website. Click here to view and please add further thoughts and ideas about this innovative and thought-provoking activity.
Our latest Earthlearningidea can now be seen on the website in both English and Spanish. 'High flow, low flow?: atmosphere and ocean in a tank'. This activity investigates hot, cold and particle-filled density currents as they flow in the atmosphere and ocean. Hot red water is used to show warm ocean currents, cold blue water to show cold currents and milk to demonstrate turbidity currents. Pupils become much more involved and watch more closely if they are asked to predict what will happen before each demonstration. They also learn more effectively that the results are controlled by density. What do you think the density 'ladder' eventually produced will be? Try it out and let us know!
Do try out our latest Earthlearningidea - 'Trapped! Why can't oil and gas escape from their underground prison?' In this activity you set up a model to demonstrate the principle of an oil and gas trap. This could form part of a lesson about the world's resources or it could follow a lesson on porosity and permeability. Pupils learn that oil and gas do not occur in underground lakes but are held within the pore spaces in the rock. We have provided a laboratory version and a home-made version. Both work well. Let us know how you and your pupils get on with this activity.
This activity 'A dinosaur in the yard' introduces the concept that an imprint (trace fossil) is just as much a fossil as the remains of the actual body and can sometimes give very valuable information about the lifestyles of the organisms involved. The animal here is Iguanodon and we know that the height of the hip joint above the ground is approximately four times the length of the hind feet. We can also use the length of the animal's stride to find out whether it was walking, trotting or running.This activity provides useful links between physics, maths and geology.
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We have also added this information in a link from our website
We have just published another Earthlearningidea - Permeability of soils - 'The great soil race'. Soils are a precious resource on which we all ultimately depend for our food supply. Understanding the structure and nature of a soil can lead to better management techniques. Many pupils will be involved in agriculture or gardening at some stage of their lives, and, in rural areas, may well depend on it for their livelihoods.
It is good to see that new subscribers are looking back at activities which were posted earlier in the year. We are referring to the new comment on 'Dig up a dinosaur'. A number of comments have been received about this activity; they can all be seen in the Extension ideas. Perhaps some of our bloggers might care to contribute a story of scientists cooperating, as shown particularly in such achievements as the International Geophysical Year in 1957 and subsequent projects.
Earthlearningidea now has a link to the Science Italian Teachers' Association website. Perhaps someone would like to translate the activities into Italian?