Why do coastlines and cliffs vary so much in appearance?

The new ELI today is 'Coastal erosion; what controls the form of a coastline and the steepness of its cliffs?'

This activity examines how cliff structure and other factors impact cliff retreat and coastal landforms. It lists the main factors involved in coastal erosion and relates photographs of real coastlines to idealised situations. Pupils realise that there may be several explanations for any one cliff form.

There are many related activities in our sedimentary processes category.

Identifying minerals - two new videos

Two new videos are now available to help you to identify common minerals. 'Be a mineral expert - I: beginning to identify minerals – introducing colour, habit, lustre, cleavage'.

'Be a mineral expert – 2: identifying minerals using ‘action’ tests – streak, density, hardness, acid test'.

Click here to find many other related ativities.

Demonstrating oceanic magnetic stripes with several pairs of hands

The new ELI+ today is fun to do - 'Hands on magnetic stripes; demonstrating how oceanic ridge magnetic stripes form with several pair of hands'.

This activity works well as a consolidation activity, particularly following the Earthlearningidea, ‘Magnetic stripes’  which demonstrates how magnetic stripes form using a striped piece of paper with magnetised pins pulled out of a gap between two tables.

Click on Plate tectonics to find many other related Earthlearningideas.

The ELI Team has now published more teaching videos, that is, they follow the CASE (Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education) approach. Here are some examples:

'When will it blow? - predicting eruptions; how a simple tiltmeter can demonstrate the bulging of a volcano before eruption'

'What was it like to be there - in the rocky world? Bringing the formation of solid rock to life - by imagining yourself there when it formed'

'Shaken but not stirred? How earthquakes affect buildings'

Any video on the website can be found by using the search engine, remembering to change 'pdf' to 'video' before you search, in the topics lists or in the alphabetical index
 

Fold structures - can you draw them ?

The new ELI today is another is our 'picturing' series - 'Picturing tectonic structures – 2 folding: visualise and draw fold structures from a verbal description'.

These 'picturing' activities enhance pupils’ skills of description and interpretation using photographs of folded rocks at various scales.

Related activities can be found in our 'Deformation - folding and faulting' category.

Predicting volcanic eruptions

Now there is a teaching video to accompany the activity we published many years ago, 'When will it blow? – predicting eruptions; how a simple tiltmeter can demonstrate the bulging of a volcano before eruption'.

The activity could form part of a lesson about volcanic eruptions and their effects. It could be used as part of the preparation for the best response to an eruption in a volcanic area.

Click here to find many other volcanic teaching ideas.
 

Landslide danger - and climate change

The new ELI today is the last in our 'net zero' emissions series - 'Landslide danger - and climate change; case studies of how landslides work and the likely effects of climate change'.

This activity is an introduction into landsliding processes and the likely impacts of climate change, using two case studies.

The rest of this series of Earthlearningideas can be found be here. Other activities about Landslides can be found in our Natural Hazards category.