The continental jigsaw puzzle

Can you reassemble a super-continent from a 'jigsaw puzzle'? In this ELI, the teacher introduces the idea that the continents have not  always been in their present positions by asking  pupils to look for the apparent match in the  coastlines of Africa and South America. (If a globe  is available, this will reduce any distortion from the  representation of the continents on a flat atlas  page). 
Ask what evidence pupils would look for which might demonstrate that the continents once really had been together, rather than the match being a  mere coincidence. (Pupils might suggest: fossils  of comparable land animals that could not have swum across an ocean; rocks of the same type and age that match; fold belts which seem to stop at the coast, only to appear again on the other side of the intervening ocean; evidence of ancient climates, such as red desert beds or rocks formed in tropical forest environments, etc.).
The jigsaw puzzles are supplied with the activity. 

This is one of many activities about plate tectonics on our website - all free to download.

ELI has reached 1 million downloads!

The ELI team is celebrating! By the end of June, over one million activities had been downloaded from the website!

Also, we have published a new activity in our soils series today - 'Soil layers puzzle; make your own soil profile and investigate others'.

 

Pupils are given a jumbled set of seven cards cut from the diagram above. Once they have worked out what an idealised soil profile looks like, they compare it with ones outside or ones shown in photographs. They are encouraged to try to work out why soil profiles differ and what factors are involved in causing those differences.

This is one of over 160 Earth-related teaching ideas which are FREE to download from our website.

Modelling a spreading ocean floor offset by transform faults

 Ocean floor maps clearly show that oceanic ridges have a series of ‘steps’, called transform faults. The transform fault ‘steps’ can also be seen in the offsets of ‘magnetic stripes' at ocean ridges. This activity involves making a model to demonstrate how the faults work.

This is one of many ELI activities to help to teach plate tectonics. All are free to download from the website.

Lollipop moon; modelling the phases of the Moon

Today's new ELI is 'Lollipop moon'. In this activity the phases of the Moon are modelled with a ball, lollipops and a bright light, as viewed from 'outside' the model. This follows 'Polystyrene moon' which visualised the phases on the Moon as viewed from 'inside' the model. The first in this series was 'Jaffa moon' which developed observational, recording and modelling skills. These activities show the progressive teaching of this topic.
All Earth in Space earthlearningideas can be seen on the website and, like all these wonderful activities, they are free to download.

Continents in collision

Some of the Earth’s most dramatic (and damaging) events take place at destructive plate margins where two continents collide. These occur when one plate is pulled down (subducted) where it meets another, usually producing earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. These destructive plate margins can be modelled in
cardboard as demonstrated in the ELI 'Continents in collision'.

 This is one of many Earthlearningideas in our Plate tectonic series. You can find the other activities on the website. All are free to download.

New ELI tests the shrinkage of clay and its importance to the construction industry

The new ELI published today is 'Testing rocks 3 - that shrinking feeling'. Pupils investigate the percentage shrinkage of damp clay when it dries out and relate this to potential engineering problems.

 Civil engineers and house builders need to take into account many different properties of rocks, of which the shrinkage of clay is one important factor. We investigate others in 'related activities' which can be found on the home page of the website.

Please note:
We have amended one of our earlier activities  - 'Metamorphism - that's Greek for change of shape', isn't it?' One of our translators discovered that we had made a mistake. The fifth point in Underlying principles should read "Flaky minerals in a mud-rock (such as clay minerals) recrystallise into other flaky minerals (such as micas) to lie perpendicular to the forces which affected the rock."

Partial melting - changing the chemistry of the planet

'Partial melting; simple process, huge global impact' - one of the many activities in our plate tectonics series. This activity explains how partial melting, coupled with plate tectonics, has changed the chemistry of our planet.

Each time that partial melting takes place during different stages of the plate tectonic cycle, materials with different chemical and physical makeup are formed. The starting point for these processes is the mantle, where the most abundant elements are oxygen, silicon, magnesium and iron in that order. However the Earth’s crust contains much more silicon and oxygen and much less magnesium and iron than the mantle. How this happens is explained in this activity.
This is one of many innovative plate tectonics activities to be found on the ELI website. Other ideas are listed in teaching strategies.