Continents/oceans pattern versus pattern of life on Earth

Todays new ELI+ is all about how the link between continental patterns and life on Earth can be explained? - 'The pattern of continents/oceans versus the pattern of life on Earth'

This is a modelling task, involving drawing and counting, to enable pupils to visualise the effects of different numbers of continents on global biodiversity. The activity enables pupils to account for the findings in terms of the effects of differing numbers of continents and areas of shallow sea on evolution and extinction.
Other activities related to the evolution of life can be found on our website.

Translations of Earthlearningideas

We have recently published a graph showing all the translations of Earthlearningideas.

At the end of 2017 Earthlearningidea included 1199 activities,

277 in English

922 translations from English

The Earthlearningidea Team thanks all those people who are translating the activities. All the work is on a voluntary basis and we are extremely grateful, as are teachers all over the world.

Thank you! 

The graph and the map above can be found under ELI around the world on our website.

 

Make and use your own Plaster of Paris

The new ELI today is 'Make and use your own Plaster of Paris; investigate a large-scale industrial process in a boiling tube'.

In this activity pupils make their own small quantity of Plaster of Paris and then use it to make a cast. This helps them to understand the large-scale industrial process of making plaster.
Use the search engine or index on our website to find many more activities to do with Earth's materials and resources.

What drives the tectonic plates?

This activity 'What drives the plates?' uses a pupil model to demonstrate that slab pull is the main plate-driving force.

Recent evidence has shown that the traditional view of mantle convection being the main driving force in lithospheric plate movement is probably incorrect. If it were the main driving force, then plates with the largest surface area would move fastest because they would have the largest area on which the mantle convection forces would act – this is not the case. However, those plates that have the longest subducting margins, with geophysical evidence of the deepest subduction slabs, do seem to be moving fastest – which is why this is now considered to be the main driving force. A fourth force that might be important is subduction suction where the old, cold oceanic plate subduction trench migrates towards the oceanic ridge pulling the over- riding plate behind it. Some geophysicists argue that this is an important driver of plate movement.
Many more activities about plate tectonics can be found on our website.

Modelling plate margins and plate movement with your hands

The first new Earthlearningidea for 2018 is 'Plate margins and movement by hand; modelling plate margins and plate movement with your hands'.

This is a class activity to help pupils to visualise plate margins and movements through modelling with their hands.
Many more activities associated with plate tectonics an be found on our website.