Teaching videos

New ELI teaching videos! A new teaching video will be published every two weeks. Videos and question scripts will show how, by using the CASE methodology, Earthlearningideas can be used to develop critical thinking skills as well as knowledge and understanding.
 Video - Explanation of CASE
 Video - 'Atmosphere and ocean in a tank' - an example of using the CASE method of teaching


The videos plus their associated question scripts can be found on our website under ELI Teaching Videos

Create your own music - inspired by the natural world

Today's new ELI is 'Geo-music - music inspired by all things ‘geo’: create your own geo-music'

Much of our great music was and is inspired by the natural world. This activity encourages pupils to listen to such music and to compose their own.
The activity creates a cross-curricular link between the sciences and arts.
Other cross-curricular activities can be found in Teaching strategies and in Children's Fun on our website.

Ideas for Home Schooling

In these very difficult circumstances, many of you will be working from home and trying to think of ideas for your pupils or for children at home.
Earthlearningidea has a Children's Fun page which may help.

Alternatively, you can find topics by using either the search engine or the alphabetical index. Each activity has a suggested age range (usually on the second page).

New ELI today ‘Tagging’ nitrogen atoms – to explore the nitrogen cycle: a thought experiment to investigate nitrogen cycle processes'

Drawings showing the cycling of matter are abstract concepts and so difficult for pupils to understand. Using the pretend ‘tagging’ method helps them to gain a more concrete idea of the different steps involved and so can be used to teach or consolidate understanding of the nitrogen and other cycles.
More activities involving chemistry in Earth science can be found in Teaching strategies on the website.

Different densities of Earth's layers

'From an orange to the whole Earth; using an orange to model different densities of the Earth’s layers'.

The orange is analogous to the Earth in having a relatively dense centre (mantle/core) and a much less dense skin (crust).
More activities about the structure of the Earth can be found on our website in Teaching strategies or by using the search engine or alphabetical index.

Updated 'mantle plume' activity

Because the science has moved on, we have just re-published an activity we first wrote in 2010. This includes all the latest thinking on this topic.

A “mantle plume” in a beaker – but not driving plates: mantle plumes ‘yes’ – but convection currents driving plates, probably ‘No’

This Earthlearningidea replaces A “mantle plume” in a beaker: modelling processes at a constructive (divergent) plate margin’, which was published when the convection current model of mantle drag was thought to be the main driving force of plate movement.
Many more activities relating to plate tectonics, including recent UPDATES can be found on our website.
(Please refresh your page or clear your history if you get the old version of this ELI.)

How did Charles Darwin discover how soil formed?

"Darwin’s ‘big soil idea’. Can you work out how Charles Darwin ‘discovered’ how soil formed?"

This activity involves finding out how Charles Darwin ‘discovered’ soil by using the evidence he used and trying to think as he thought, including building a wormery like he did.
You can find many more activities about soil on our website.