Hotspots; modelling the movement of a plate across the globe

Today's new Earthlearningidea is 'Hotspots; modelling the movement of a plate across the globe'.

Use a candle and a piece of card to model the evidence of the movement of a tectonic plate over a fixed heat source in the Earth’s mantle. This activity can be used in any lesson in a science or geography class dealing with plate tectonics. There are many more ideas for teaching this topic on our website.

Animals fifty million years into the future

Pupils from Box School in Wiltshire, UK have been trying out the Earthlearningidea 'Fifty million years into the future; investigating how animals become adapted to their environments'.  
Click here to see their results.

Panning for 'gold' in river sediment

Have you tried the Earthlearningidea, 'Gold prospectors'?

In this activity pupils are Iinvestigating how prospectors use the property of density to search for gold in river sediments. By doing this ELI, pupils develop motor skills as they experiment with the best method of separating materials; they can explain why density is a useful property in the separation of materials and can use their imaginations to visualise a real gold prospector in the field.
Another Earthlearningidea which used density of minerals for separation is 'Jigging'

This is a simple practical activity used to separate minerals of different density from each other. It is a small scale version of a method which was used for centuries.
Search the website for more ELIs about minerals and density.

What's the difference between weathering and erosion?

Today's new ELI addresses the common misconceptions about weathering and erosion.

Textbook surveys have shown that misconceptions between weathering and erosion are common, when the scientific consensus is clear:-
- Weathering is the break up and break down (physical break up and chemical breakdown) of rocks at the Earth’s surface without the removal of solid material (although material can be removed in solution)
- Erosion is the removal of solid material, by gravity, water, wind or ice (as the start of transportation).
The related activities on the home page of our website lists some ideas for teaching both weathering and erosion.

Make your own soil profile

Another ELI in our soils series is 'Soil layers puzzle'. Seven soil layers cards are provided and pupils are asked to arrange them in the correct order to make a soil profile. They are then encouraged to compare different soil profiles from different parts of the world.
Many more soils activities can be found on our website using the search engine or the index or by clicking on Teaching strategies.