Questions to ask about potential for quarry re-opening

Today's new ELI is 'Questions for any rock face 13: quarry economics; what questions about potential for quarry re-opening might be asked at any rock exposure?'

Take your pupils to an abandoned quarry and ask the series of questions provided to help them to understand the economics of exploiting raw materials.
At the end of the activity pupils can:-
- carry out arithmetical calculations;
- describe the potential uses of quarry materials;
- describe the economic potential of a quarry site;
- debate the issues around the re-opening of an old quarry.
Many more ideas for fieldwork can be found on the Earthlearningidea website.

Cross bedding - are the rocks the right way up?

"Sedimentary structures – cross-bedding and ‘way-up’" This ELI uses cross bedding to determine the way-up of a bed of sedimentary rock.

This activity is an introduction to the types of evidence which can be obtained from cross-bedding in sediments and in sedimentary rocks. Many other sedimentary structures are explained in activities on our website. The index will help you to find all of them.

What can boreholes tell us about the Earth?

The new ELI today is '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. As you can imagine, investigating their own edible boreholes is much enjoyed by students of all ages.
More activities for discovering what is beneath Earth's surface can be found on our website.

How do day and night and the seasons work?

The ELI 'Earth on Earth' uses a globe in the sunshine to show how day/night and the seasons work.

A model globe is fixed in the same position, relative to the Sun, as the real Earth, allowing pupils to clearly see how day and night and the seasons work.

'Seasons - the effect of our tilted Earth' is an indoor demonstration explaining the changing seasons.

A globe is ‘walked’ round a circle of pupils, with a bright light at the centre, to show how the tilt of the Earth relative to the Sun creates different seasons.







More similar teaching ideas can be found in the Earth in Space category on our website.

Today's new ELI is 'Questions for any rock face 12: potential of the quarry or cutting. What questions about the potential of the site might be asked at any rock exposure?'

Take your pupils to an abandoned quarry or cutting and ask the questions provided to debate the potential of the area for use today. Some uses may be highly viable, others should not be considered.
Many more ideas for field work can be found on our website.

Solar radiation and latitude

Hot or not? This ELI investigates how latitude affects the amount of solar radiation received

When the Sun is overhead, as in the torch shining down on to the flat piece of paper, the rays are more intense than when the Sun is not overhead and the rays are reaching the Earth’s surface at an angle.
Lots more activities relating to this topic can be found on the website by either using the search engine or the index.

Rock builder - simulating the formation of fossiliferous sedimentary rocks

The new ELI today is another in our ELI Early years series - 'Rock builder; simulating the formation of fossiliferous sedimentary rocks'. 

This activity uses a variety of coloured sands and shells in plastic bottles, with filler acting as cement to ‘glue’ the grains together. Once the 'rocks' are set, pupils can remove the plastic bottles and excavate the 'rocks' to find their 'fossils'. The activity is very messy but great fun!
Other ideas for young children can be found in our Teaching strategies - ELI Early years.

A popular activity in July was 'James Hutton - or Mr. Rock Cycle? - thinking towards the rock cycle the Hutton way'