Carbon goes round and round and round

Click here to view our latest Earthlearningidea about the carbon cycle.
Pupils are asked to arrange specimens, drawings or photos of the carbon cycle into the correct sequence. They are then asked at which stages carbon is 'fixed' and which stages carbon is 'released'.
The carbon cycle can be introduced when teaching many topics including the atmosphere, photosynthesis, respiration, decomposition, combustion, fossil fuels, climate change - - - -
Let us know how you introduce it.

New activity - See how they run!

Why do some lavas flow further and more quickly than others? Find out by trying our latest Earthlearningidea 'See how they run'.
Ask your pupils why they think that some volcanoes erupt lava that can flow for many kilometres, whilst others tend to produce lava domes with no runny lava at all. Pupils can then investigate some of the factors that control the viscosity (or 'stickiness') of fluids, using a viscous fluid like treacle as a substitute for lava.
At the end of this activity your pupils should be able to explain that the viscosity of a fluid depends on several variables including temperature, content of solid particles and gas content. They will know that a fluid with low viscosity will flow further than one of high viscosity. They will appreciate that lavas may contain liquids, solids and gases and that volcanoes emitting lava of high viscosity may be more dangerous than ones with low viscosity lava, which flows away more freely.

Bringing a fossil to life

'What was it like to be there? - bringing a fossil to life' is our latest Earthlearningidea.
Try to bring fossils to life in the imaginations of your pupils by asking a series of key questions. Encourage them to use the evidence from the fossils themselves to answer the questions, rather than by guessing. Ask them to suggest what other evidence might help them to give even better answers. Questions to ask are as follows -

When it was alive:
- What sort of place was this animal living in?
- What did it breathe?
- What did it eat?
- Was it a hunter? — or hunted? — or both?
- What could it have seen?
- What could it have sensed?
- How did it die? — can we tell?
- What happened after it died?
Pupils have to use their creativity and imagination to bring the animals and their environments to life, whilst 'bridging' between life today and in the past.
Let us know how you get on with this activity by writing a comment on this blog or by contacting us by email.

Quarry through the window

'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.
Many people don't realise that, to build our buildings, to construct transport links and to make dams and reservoirs, we have to extract millions of tonnes of material from the ground — and that this comes from quarries. Most people would not like a quarry in their 'backyard', but quarries have to be sited where the materials are found underground, and not too far from where they are needed, because it is very expensive to transport bulk materials like quarry products for long distances. So, some rock, sand and gravel quarries and clay pits have to be sited near towns and cities.
Ask your pupils to try this activity and send us their work. We will publish the best.

Dinosaur death - did it die or was it killed?

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.
This is a very popular activity in the UK. Let us know how your pupils react.

Flood through the window

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.
Pupils are asked to visualise a flood seen through the window and imagine its likely impacts now and in the future. Sudden flooding episodes can even affect area with steep slopes, but are much more common in flat, low-lying areas subject to major weather phenomena.
Please try this out with your class and let us know how you get on. Perhaps you could send us the pupils' work which we will publish.

Earthlearningidea across the world

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.
The activities are available in English and Spanish but are now being translated into Norwegian and Italian. We hope to add more languages in the future.
We are over half-way through our weekly publications now so please keep your comments coming.