IMPORTANT NOTICE

Earthlearningidea is moving to a new and more powerful server.
The content is identical.
The main entry point remains http://www.earthlearningidea.com.
Some users are accessing the old site with direct links to the pdf downloads.
Please will these users update their links and bookmarks as the old server will be turned off in about one week's time.

How do we know how extinct animals lived?

The ELI 'Curious creatures' uses fossil and modern evidence to work out the lifestyles of extinct animals. Pupils try to compare the features of animals today with
those of fossils. All of the creatures in the drawing above, lived in the sea about 515
million years ago before there were any plants or animals on land.
This is one of many activities to be found in the Evolution of Life category on our website.

Margarine mountain-building

Have you tried making mountains every time you make a sandwich? Try this ELI 'Margarine mountain-building'  The activity uses materials that pupils use every day to remind them how folds and mountain belts are formed, as surface and near surface materials are scraped up during plate subduction.
Many more free-to-download activities can be found on our website.

New ELI today - Environmental evaluation

We continue our Fieldwork series with 'Environmental evaluation; developing a strategy for evaluating the environment'.  This activity helps your pupils to appreciate and evaluate the outdoor environment by carrying out an environmental evaluation at different sites and comparing their results. They are given a scale to use in environmental evaluation, and then asked to apply this scale to different environmental circumstances, that can range from a local small environment to a panoramic view. If you are successful, your pupils may return from holiday and tell you they’ve been to a ‘9’ holiday destination!
Lots more ideas for out of the classroom work can be found on our website.

Teaching about fossils?

The Earthlearningidea team has introduced a new 'Fossils' category in our Teaching strategies so it is now very easy for everyone to find all the activities we have published so far about fossils. There is a separate 'dinosaur' section too!

A new group of ELIs is being written now called ELI (Early years) and that too will have some activities about fossils. We will keep you informed!
Please contact us with any requests.

Fieldwork: Applying 'the present is the key to the past'

The new ELI today is 'Fieldwork: Applying 'the present is the key to the past'.
This five-phase outdoor activity is used to explain how Earth scientists use the Principle of Uniformitarianism, often simply stated as ‘the present is the key to the past’, by considering the present environment and thinking how it might be preserved geologically.
It is one of many outdoor ELIs - all listed on the website in activities related to the new ELI and in 'Teaching strategies' under 'Fieldwork'.