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.

Fun way to demonstrate sea floor spreading and magnetic stripes

We thought you would enjoy a fun activity as we end our magnetism and plate tectonics series.  'Hands on magnetic stripes; demonstrating how oceanic ridge magnetic stripes form, with several pairs of hands'.

This activity involves a class demonstration of how ocean floor magnetic stripes form, using the hands of pupils. It usually ends with the 'ridge' collapsing and much laughter.

Related activities can be found in our Plate tectonics and Magnetism categories.

Mapping Magnetic Anomalies

Today's new ELI is 'Mapping Magnetic Anomalies; modelling the palaeomagnetic evidence for plate tectonic boundaries on the ocean floor'.

This ELI involves modelling plate boundaries (divergent and transform) from a simulated geomagnetic data survey. Students can describe how the pattern of magnetic stripes was collected from ocean exploration surveys and they can identify evidence of plate boundaries from the pattern of palaeomagnetic anomalies. They can also explain that magnetic anomalies and magnetic stripes are associated with reversals in the Earth’s geomagnetic field.

Related activities can be found in the following topics on our website, Magnetism, Plate tectonics and Oceanography.

Modelling ancient and modern magnetic fields, using people!

Our ELI today is 'Human magnets! - modelling ancient and modern magnetic fields, using your pupils'.

Pupils use their own bodies to model the magnetisation induced in magnetite mineral particles by the Earth’s field of today: also the magnetic evidence within ancient rocks for ‘continental drift’.

Related activities can be found in 'Magnetism' in our Investigating the Earth category.

Hotspots . . what are they?

 Today we consider 'Hotspots; modelling the movement of a plate across the globe'.

In this ELI a felt-tip pen and a piece of card are used to model the evidence of the movement of a tectonic plate over a fixed heat source in the Earth’s mantle.

Many related activities can be found in 'Plate tectonics' in our Earth energy / processes category.