Three new ELI Italian translations

We have just published three new Italian translations of our Earthlearningideas:-

Degradazione atmosferica - disgregazione e decomposizione delle rocce
Weathering - rocks breaking up and breaking down

Lo spazio Interstiziale - La porosità delle rocce
The space within - the porosity of rocks

Innocente fino a prova contraria 
Innocent until proven guilty


Many thanks to Nicoletta Scattolin and her students, Lorenzo Lancellotti and Maddalena Macario.
If you can translate ELIs into your language, please let us know.

Building stones resource

We have just published a major new building stones resource - 'Building Stones 1 - a resource for several Earthlearningidea activities'.  This is a small group activity in the identification of a wide range of rock types, using natural-scale photographs of rocks used as building stones or for ornamental purposes. The sheets of photographs are intended for use as the basis for several further activities. This activity can be used in the classroom or in a town centre. 
Note to our users: the file is 6.6MB. If this is too big for you to download, please contact us and we will send it to you in small sections.

Teaching strategies and Fun sessions

We have added new pages to our website -

TEACHING STRATEGIES - we know this page does not look very exciting but it lists activities teachers could use if they are teaching any of the topics mentioned. As we have so many activities on the site now, we thought it might be useful for teachers to be able to find quickly suitable activities for a particular topic. Please have a look at the list and let us know what you think either by comment on this post or by email. Also, if you have ideas for other topics, please let us know.

CHILDREN'S FUN SESSIONS - this page lists fun activities for children to do on special science days, in museum sessions, on open days or at any time when they want to have fun and learn something too. Any comments or suggestions about these will be gratefully received too.

Jigging - density separation

Our Jubilee ELI is 'Jigging; using density to separate different materials'. This is a simple practical activity used to separate minerals of different density from each other. It is a small-scale version of a method which was used for centuries.
This is one of many activities in the' Investigating the Earth' category on our website.

Craters on the Moon

Why are the Moon's craters such different shapes and sizes? Click here to download this activity. Around 80% of the Moon’s surface is covered in craters. The largest (on the Moon’s far side) is over 1000 km across, but there are millions of craters which are at least 1m across. We think most craters were caused by meteorites crashing into the moon in the distant past. What controlled the size and shape of these craters? We can model some of the factors by bombarding layers of sand with spherical objects such as glass marbles or ball bearings, and measuring the dimensions of the mini-craters formed.
This is one of hundreds of Earth-related activities to be found on our website. All are designed to be thought-provoking and engaging for pupils.

Evolution of evolution

Our new Earthlearningidea this week is 'Sorting out the evolution of evolution headlines'. This is a timeline/card sort exercise, asking pupils to put cards of ‘milestones’ in the evolution of evolutionary thought into the most appropriate places on a timeline. When they have completed the activity pupils will be able to describe how evolutionary thought developed over time and explain how the idea of evolution was developed through the work of many scientists.
This is one of many activities in our Evolution of Life category - try them out by downloading the activities from our website; they are all FREE.

'Water, water everywhere nor any drop to drink'

'Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink' is an ELI activity investigating how to get clean water from dirty 'pond' water. This investigation could be used in any lessons involving discussions about water supply. People have always needed to find clean water to drink. It is a vital factor in where people can live.
The activity is one of many in our Resources and Environment category and can be found, along with many other ideas, on our website.