When the youngest rock is not on top of the rock sequence

Today's new ELI is 'Modelling by hand ‘when the youngest rock is not on top’; illustrating how rock sequences can have older rocks on top of younger ones'

While the ‘Principle of superposition of strata’ states that younger rocks are found above older ones, there are certain unusual geological conditions causing older rocks to be found on top of younger ones. Through this activity, pupils can model the unusual geological conditions where the ‘Principle of superposition’ does not apply.
This is one of a series of activities using modelling with your hands. Many activities related to the topics in this ELI can be found on our website.

Rock cycle discussion about a sand grain

Have you tried the ELI 'Sand on a sill; what will happen to a sand grain left on a window sill? – a rock cycle discussion'?

This discussion activity has been devised to encourage pupils to think about rock cycle processes in the context of the area outside their own school. By leading the small group discussion using questions such as: ‘What might happen next?’, ‘And then?’ or ‘Can you think of another idea?’, teachers should be able to encourage pupils to consider a range of different processes and products of the rock cycle and how these link to other Earth cycles, as described in the activity.
Many other activities about the rock cycle and its processes and products can be found in 'Teaching strategies' or in the index on our website.
You can also take part in the international research project.

Earthquakes in art

The new ELI is 'Earthquakes in art: developing a scientific report based on evidence in historic paintings'

For this activity the pupils are divided into groups and told that they are science correspondents developing a news report for a quality newspaper or television or radio broadcast. Give each group a copy of one of the paintings and a list of criteria to consider for their reports.
Many more activities associated with Earthquakes can be found on the Earthlearningidea website. There are also other cross-curricular topics.

So, you want to conserve a geodiversity site

'So, you want to conserve a geodiversity site; what could you do if you wanted to conserve a geoscience site?'

This is a planning activity focussed on conserving a site of geoscientific importance. A checklist is provided to develop a plan for conserving a site.
Lots more activities about the environment can be found in our 'Resources and Environment' category on the website.

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.