Why certain minerals are of such importance to the USA

Our new ELI today is the 9th in our Essential Minerals series - 'Essential Minerals for the Green Revolution – 9 Critical Minerals for the USA'

This Earthlearningidea defines the purpose of a national critical minerals list for the current and future needs of the USA’s industries and technology. This activity could form an extension of the ELI series on metal ores which are essential for the “new” technologies as well as the growth of existing industries.

Related activities can be found in our Minerals category.

Rare earths - vital components in modern technology

We continue our theme of Essential Minerals for the Green Revolution with 'Rare Earth Elements; vital components in modern technology'.

This activity could be used in a lesson on the need to identify and exploit rare earth minerals in vital applications in many different fields, ranging from optics to energy saving devices and medical equipment. They are particularly important as catalysts in industrial processes and in the manufacture of strong magnets.

Other related activities can be found in our Minerals category.

Our ELI today is 'Essential Minerals for the Green Revolution – 6 “The Three Ts”; Tin, Tungsten and Tantalum'.

This ELI involves contrasting good practice in extracting essential minerals with illegal mining. It includes a brief survey of world production of the “Three Ts”.

Related activities can be found in our Minerals and Mining and the Green Revolution            categories.

Essential Minerals for the Green Revolution – 8 Critical Minerals

The new ELI today is  "Essential Minerals for the Green Revolution – 8 Critical Minerals; essential mineral – critical mineral: what is the difference?"

This ELI defines the purpose of a national critical minerals list for the future needs of the UK’s technology.

Many ELIs about essential minerals can be found in our Minerals category.

Soils Testing

The new ELI today is 'Soil pH testing; a way of introducing scientific practice into environmental education'.

Testing the pH of soil using shop-bought kits.

Other related soil activities can be found in this category.

Simple Rock Identification

'Rock detective – rocky clues to the past; investigating your local rocks to find out how they formed'.

 

This activity is all about sorting rocks according to their properties, which depend upon how they were formed. Pupils use the characteristic properties of a set of rocks to sort them into sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rock groups. This works reasonably well for most rocks, but there are exceptions which are explained in the activity.

Other ELIs about rocks can be found in the Rocks section of Earth Materials.

How pure are limestones and calcium carbonate minerals?

Keeping our theme of limestone - - '‘I’m pure calcium carbonate’ – the calcium carbonate question; a discussion focussed on common misconceptions about calcium carbonate'.

 

 

This activity helps pupils to understand the likely purity of minerals and rocks. Rocks are normally less pure than minerals.

There are many ELIs about minerals and about rocks.

What is a mineral?

'Mineral or not? Discussion about what is a mineral and what is not'.

 

This is an activity centred around pictures or samples to enable pupils to distinguish between a mineral in the Earth science sense and other ways in which the term is commonly used.

Many related activities about Minerals can be found in the Earth Materials section of our website.

For the Green revolution, how is a critical mineral different from an essential mineral?

The new ELI is the last in the current series of Essential Minerals for the Green Revolution. It is "Essential mineral – critical mineral: what is the difference?"

This activity defines the purpose of a national critical minerals list for the future needs of the UK’s technology. It could form a summary of the Earthlearningidea series on metal ores which are essential for the “new” technologies as well as for the growth of existing industries.

The full series of 'Essential Minerals for the Green Revolution' can be found in the Minerals section of Earth Materials on our website.

Relating minerals and rocks to everyday objects

'What is it made of? Relate each mineral or rock to the everyday object containing it.'

This activity emphasises the presence of geological resources in many of the things used in our daily lives.

Other related activities can be found in 'Engineering and industrial geology'  in our Earth Materials category.
 

Gold - is it an essential mineral for the Green Revolution or not?

The new ELI today continues the 'Essential minerals' series with 'Essential Minerals for the Green Revolution – 7 Gold: an essential mineral – or is it?'

This activity raises awareness of the main world uses of gold and the frequent abuses of human rights in some of the main gold producing countries.

Other ELIs in the series can be found in our 'Minerals' section of the Earth Materials category.

Identifying rocks the active way!

This is a game to help pupils to understand, and remember, the different rock types ‘Rockery 1 - rock game; model different characteristics of rocks - with your pupils'.

 

The activity helps pupils to remember the fundamental differences between rock types. It is also a lot of fun!

Many related activities about rocks can be found here.

Cobalt, mined by children

Today, we continue with our series on 'Essential minerals for the Green Revolution with number 5, Cobalt; mined by children'.

This ELI raises awareness of the main trade in cobalt and the use of child labour in cobalt mines in the main producing country. Worldwide demand for cobalt and related metals is rising rapidly as new technologies are embraced.

Related activities can be found in 'Minerals' in our Earth Materials category.

Graphite, an essential mineral for the Green Revolution

We are continuing our latest series with 'Essential Minerals for the Green Revolution – 4 Graphite: from a pencil to the electric car!'

This ELI is an investigation into the sources of graphite as worldwide demand rises, with the introduction of new technology for motor vehicles, such as lithium-ion batteries. Worldwide demand for graphite and related elements is rising rapidly as new technologies are embraced.

Other related activities in our 'Essential minerals' series can be found in the ELI Minerals category.

 

Evidence for the Earth's core

Today's ELI is 'A core activity; piecing together evidence for the composition of the Earth’s core'.

This Earthlearningidea asks pupils to examine and discuss the evidence for the composition of the Earth’s core.

Related ideas can be found in our Earth Materials category in 'Structure of the Earth'.

The effect of the Earth's core on earthquake waves

The new ELI today is 'Shadowlands; simulating the effect of the Earth’s core on earthquake waves'.

This is a simulation exercise to demonstrate that the shadow zones created by earthquake waves are affected by the size and physical properties of the Earth’s liquid outer core.

Other related activities can be found in two categories: 'Structure of the Earth' and 'Earthquakes'.

Boring chocolate? A new look at boreholes

Today, we continue our edible theme with 'Boring chocolate! What can boreholes tell us about the Earth?'.

This activity can be used in any science or geography lesson about finding what is beneath the Earth’s surface, including the search for natural resources and understanding past environments.

You can find related activities in our Earth Materials, Earth's structure category.

 

The demand for copper is increasing rapidly

Today, we are continuing our theme of 'Essential Minerals for the Green Revolution with Copper: an element for which the demand is increasing rapidly'.

This ELI involves an investigation into the need to increase mining for copper as demand rises abruptly and ores of lean (low) grade have to be used. 

Click here for other Earthlearningideas about minerals.

How to distinguish different landscapes - granite, chalk, sandstone and limestone

 New teaching videos to accompany two popular Earthlearningideas:

'Geological postcards 1 – granite and chalk'' and 

'Geological postcards 2 – sandstone and limestone
Picture postcard puzzles'

These ELIs use ‘postcards’ of landscape features as clues to the nature of the underlying rocks.

Many, many activities about rocks can be found in our Earth Materials category - just search for 'Rocks' in 'Topics'.

Essential minerals for the Green Revolution

The new ELI today is the start of a series of Earthlearningideas about the essential minerals needed for the Green Revolution. We begin with Lithium. 'Essential Minerals for the Green Revolution – 1 Lithium; an element which is pulling more than its weight in the world'.

This activity is an investigation into the sources of lithium as worldwide demand rises, with the introduction of new technology, such as lithium-ion batteries.

Our Minerals category has many more activities about minerals and over the next few months more ELIs about essential minerals will be published.