What do porosity and permeability mean?

Confused? Is the rock porous or is it permeable or is it both? Try the Earthlearningidea, 'Does my rock hold water and will water flow through it?'

You could also watch the video:

This activity can be used in any science or geography lesson where the ability of rocks to hold water or hydrocarbons is being discussed.

Many more activities about the characteristics of rocks can be found on our website.

Picturing trace fossils and sedimentary structures

How good are you at describing what you see so someone can draw it? Try today's new ELI 'Picturing trace fossils and other strange shapes: visualise and draw trace fossils and sedimentary structures from a verbal description

This activity enhances pupils’ skills of description and interpretation using photographs of trace fossils and sedimentary structures. It could form a useful revision activity.

More activities related to trace fossils and sedimentary structures can be found on our website.

New Videos and workshop for pupils aged 7 to 9

The ELI Team is pleased to announce the launch of new videos and workshop, 'Exploring rock, soil, water, fossil' for children aged 7 to 9 (UK lower KS2)

Examples of the videos:-

Planting trees

Our new ELI today is 'Let's plant some trees; investigating the importance of trees to our planet'.

In this activity afforestation and reforestation are considered and all the ways that trees are important to our planet are discussed.

Other activities related to reaching the 'net zero' emissions target can be found on our website.
 

Party time for volcanoes!

This is a good time of year to try 'Party time for volcanoes! How much force does it take to set off a party popper “volcano"?'

This activity measures the force required to burst a party popper; it provides a quantifiable way of measuring a gradually increasing stress, akin to the build up of pressure beneath a volcano, or the increases in stress as rock masses begin to move relative to each other. The variable results obtained relate to the prediction of volcanic eruptions or earthquakes - and it's great fun!

Many more Earthlearningideas about volcanic eruptions and earthquakes can be found on our website.

Potential source of energy from flooded, old coal mines

Our new ELI today and another in our 'net zero' emissions series is, 'A new use for old coal mines; a potential source of energy from beneath our feet'.

This activity investigates how geothermal heat in flooded coal mines might be used to heat our homes and workplaces.

The 'net zero' emissions series of Earthlearningideas can be found here.

Volcanic eruptions - which classroom eruption is best?

Following the eruption of Mt Semeru on Java in Indonesia, the ELI today is 'Best classroom eruption? Which type of classroom eruption best shows how volcanoes erupt?

 

 

This Earthlearningidea evaluates different types of classroom eruptions to gauge which best shows how eruptions are triggered.

Many activities about volcanic eruptions can be found by using the search engine or alphabetical index on our website.