Earth Learning Idea

Visualising the phases of the Moon

noreply@blogger.com (Earth Learning Idea) — Mon, 20 May 2013 09:40:00 +0000

Trying to visualise the phases of the Moon is very difficult. To make it easier, try the latest Earthlearningidea, 'Polystyrene moon; visualising the phases of the Moon using a ball on a stick'.

This activity uses a ball and stick to simulate the Moon and a light beam to simulate the Sun to see what the phases of the Moon look like from the ‘Earth’.
Visit our website for lots more good ideas for teaching Earth science.

Please note: ELI is now on Twitter and waiting for your tweets!

Splat! Testing the plasticity of clay

noreply@blogger.com (Earth Learning Idea) — Mon, 06 May 2013 09:38:00 +0000

The new Earthlearningidea published today is 'Testing rocks 2 - Splat!' Pupils investigate the relationship between the plasticity of clay and its water content by dropping a clay ball on to the floor and measuring its spread. Needless to say this is a very popular activity!
We should be pleased to receive your comments and suggestions about this or any of the other 150 + innovative teaching ideas, all free to download from our website. You can search by activity, topic or by category to find the subject you need.

Magnetic stripes

noreply@blogger.com (Earth Learning Idea) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 17:43:00 +0000

Have you tried the ELI 'Magnetic stripes'? This activity models the symmetrical magnetic pattern of the rocks of the sea floor. The magnetic properties of the rocks below the sea bed have been used to show that the ocean floors are spreading outwards.
This is one of many ELI activities used to teach the theory of plate tectonics; a list is provided in the 'Teaching strategies', link from the ELI home page.

Smelter on a stick

noreply@blogger.com (Earth Learning Idea) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:40:00 +0000

Today's new ELI publication is 'Smelter on a stick: smelting iron ore to iron on a gas burner'. In this activity, pupils can demonstrate how iron ore can be smelted to iron, using a “micro-smelter” on a gas flame. It is a simple introduction to the smelting of metal ores by reducing them to the metal with charcoal. It is very popular!
Other ELI activities related to ores are listed on the home page of the website.
Let us know how you get on with this activity by putting a comment on this blog.

Frozen magnetism

noreply@blogger.com (Earth Learning Idea) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 18:48:00 +0000

Teaching magnetism and the Earth? Have you tried the ELI 'Frozen magnetism; preserving evidence of a past magnetic field in wax'? This activcity is a demonstration of how the evidence for the magnetic field around a bar magnet may be preserved, even after the magnet has been removed. This gives an analogy for the three- dimensional magnetic field of the Earth, with a North and a South Pole.
This is one of many Earthlearningideas in the Earth energy/processes category.

Found in the ground - grouping materials

noreply@blogger.com (Earth Learning Idea) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 20:23:00 +0000

This week's new Earthlearningidea is 'Found in the ground: sorted!' This activity is an introduction to classification using things 'found in the ground'.
Pupils are provided with a box of assorted items, most of which come straight from the ground, but also including one or two manufactured objects. A typical list is given under 'Resources' in the activity. The pupils are asked to sort the items into groups,
using their own criteria, and without any prior briefing regarding the usual names for materials of geological origin. They may set up as many groups as they like, so long as they can justify why they have placed items in each group. Tell them that, when they have finished, you will want them to justify their reasons for their groupings.
This is one of many activities in our Earth Materials category.

Popular ELI in March 2013 - Dinosaur footprints

noreply@blogger.com (Earth Learning Idea) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 10:52:00 +0000

We have just published the statistics for March 2013. The results can be seen at 'ELI in the world'. At the beginning of each month we publish an Earthlearningidea that has been popular during the previous month. In March, it was 'The meeting of the dinosaurs - 100 million years ago'.

This activity is about interpreting the evidence given by dinosaur footprints. At first pupils think the answer is an easy one, that is, that the big dinosaur ate the little one but then they realise that there are lots of different scenarios to explain the evidence -
- the little one was part of a herd ready to attack the big one,
- parent and baby,
- footprints an hour or so apart so they are un-related,
- both animals going to a watering hole - - - - ??
Since ELI began in May 2007, over 900,000 activities have been downloaded. Let us know your thoughts or suggestions for future ELIs - contact ELI team.

Modelling the phases of the Moon

noreply@blogger.com (Earth Learning Idea) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 10:19:00 +0000

The new Earthlearningidea published today is 'Jaffa moon; modelling the phases of the moon using Jaffa Cakes^TM.

Ask your pupils to make a log of the shape of the moon over a lunar month, noting the date and time of each observation. They could either do this by direct observation or by research on the internet. When their logs have been completed, ask them to model the phases of the moon using Jaffa Cakes^TM. They will have to cut or nibble the biscuits carefully to make some of the phases. Then ask them to use their model to complete a series of predictions.
Needless to say, this activity will be much enjoyed by your pupils! It is the first of a series of ELIs about the Moon.

Have you played Geobattleships? Do earthquakes and volcanoes coincide?

noreply@blogger.com (Earth Learning Idea) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 16:12:00 +0000

'Geobattleships' uses a children’s game to match the distribution of volcanoes and earthquakes on the Earth’s surface. The activity provides a useful lead-in to the topic of plate tectonics and is best used before students have become too familiar with the theory.
This is one of many ELIs associated with plate tectonic theory; refer to Teaching strategies for some more ideas.

Soil doughnuts - investigating types of soil

noreply@blogger.com (Earth Learning Idea) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:12:00 +0000

The new ELI this week is 'Soil doughnuts; sorting out soils'
Give the pupils a variety of different soil types ranging from very sandy, through loam to heavy clay. They can then use the table provided to work out which soil type they have. They soon realise that sandy soils allow water through easily and clay soils do not. Gardeners usually prefer loam soils. For a farmer or gardener, it is important to know the soil type so that it can be managed properly and crop production increased.
Along with the other soils activities in the ELI soil series, this can be used in any lesson about the environment, rocks and landscape, agriculture, gardening or investigations out of doors. It is messy, but fun!

Landslides

noreply@blogger.com (Earth Learning Idea) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 15:20:00 +0000

Click here to view amazing photos of the Hatfield Stainforth colliery landslide, UK.

Try the ELI 'Landslide through the window - what would you see, what would you feel?' This activity asks pupils to picture for themselves what a landslide through the window might look like.
This is one of many activities in our Resources and environment category

Properties of the Earth's mantle

noreply@blogger.com (Earth Learning Idea) — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 17:18:00 +0000

How do you model the Earth's mantle? How do you explain that it is solid; S-waves (transverse waves) will go through it, and yet subduction can take place into it?
The answer is to try this ELI - 'Bouncing, bending, breaking; modelling the properties of the Earth's mantle with Potty Putty (TM) from a toy shop'.

This is one of many Earthlearningideas about the nature of the Earth: all can be found and downloaded free from our website.

Make your own soil

noreply@blogger.com (Earth Learning Idea) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 11:00:00 +0000

Today's new ELI is 'Make your own soil'. This is an investigation into the type and origin of the ingredients of soil. Pupils mix the ingredients provided to make their own soil. They can then suggest what is missing and what happens to the soil if they vary the amounts of each ingredient.
This activity can be used in any lesson about the environment, rocks and landscape, agriculture, gardening or investigations out of doors.
This is the first of a new ELI series on soils. Other series of activities can be seen on the website in Teaching strategies.

How do Earthquake waves travel through the Earth?

noreply@blogger.com (Earth Learning Idea) — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 10:50:00 +0000

Find out by trying the two ELIs 'Waves in the Earth 1 - the slinky simulation and Waves in the Earth 2 - human molecules'

The former uses a long spring to find out how earthquake waves travel through the Earth and in the latter, pupils are pushed around to demonstrate the properties of seismic waves!
This demonstration can be used in the context of a lesson on wave motion for its own sake, or, as here, in explaining how seismic waves can be used to show the nature of the interior of the Earth.
There are many more activities your pupils can use to find out about the interior of the Earth - search on the ELI website.

Testing the strength of rocks - bouncing back

noreply@blogger.com (Earth Learning Idea) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 23:43:00 +0000

The new ELI is 'Testing rocks - 1 bouncing back; investigating the strength of rocks'. When engineers build structures such as dams, roads and tunnels, they need to investigate the properties of the rocks beneath and around them. One of the key properties is the strength of the rocks. This normally requires expensive equipment, but in this activity pupils can get quite a good idea by simply dropping a ball bearing onto a flat, cut sample of the rock. The height to which the ball bearing bounces back allows us to compare the relative strength of different rocks.
This is one many innovative teaching activities which you can download free from our website.

How to model the magnetic field of the Earth

noreply@blogger.com (Earth Learning Idea) — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 13:47:00 +0000

Have you tried the ELI 'Magnetic Earth'? This modelling activity is a useful prelude to an understanding of the magnetic field of the Earth, albeit due to a very different
magnetic source. It can assist in pupils’ understanding of the magnetic evidence for the movement of continents and for sea-floor spreading (when remanent magnetisation is preserved in rocks), and hence a major part of plate tectonic theory.
There are many activities you can use when teaching plate tectonics. They are listed in 'Teaching strategies' on our website.

Geological time - sorting out Earth events

noreply@blogger.com (Earth Learning Idea) — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 12:50:00 +0000

The latest Earthlearningidea is 'How long does it take? - quick to very, very, very slow'. Some Earth processes are dangerously quick – but some are extremely slow. Help your pupils to understand how the rates of Earth processes differ by cutting out the scale and the cards provided, and fitting the cards in the best places on the scale.
This has been devised as a group activity to promote discussion – so the quality of
discussion is likely to be more important than the ‘right ‘answers.
This is one of the activities in our 'Geological time' category which helps pupils to better understand the enormity of geological time.
It is also our 150th activity!

Earthquakes and art

noreply@blogger.com (Earth Learning Idea) — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 16:55:00 +0000

Earthquake Rose

A sand tracing pendulum, in Washington, USA, produced some very interesting patterns after an earthquake of magnitude 6.8. The smooth curves you can see on the outside are what you normally see when someone sets the pendulum in motion to make a tracing ... without seismic assistance. The earthquake's handiwork is the design in the centre.
The motions caused by the earthquake moving the pendulum's base started small, and the initial tracings were overwritten as the strength of the ground's motion increased. Once everything started to slow down after the shaking stopped, the pendulum slowed to a stop, gradually "writing" the pattern in tighter circles as it moved back to its natural centre. If you look at it closely, you can see that the pendulum was apparently centreing in one spot, and then moved a final time to come to rest in a slightly different location. This may be explained by last minute settling in the ground.
It's interesting to think that such a massive and very destructive release of energy can also contain such delicate artistry within its chaos.
You could use this image to lead into a discussion about earthquakes and then try some of the following ELIs:-
- Earthquake prediction - when will the earthquake strike?
- Earthquake through the window - what would you see, what would you feel?
- Geobattleships (ELI+)
- Quake shake - will my home collapse?
- Shaken but not stirred?
- Surviving an earthquake
- Waves in the Earth 1: the slinky simulation (ELI+)
- Waves in the Earth 2: human molecules (ELI+)

How many for a million?

noreply@blogger.com (Earth Learning Idea) — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 19:18:00 +0000

We can easily talk about a million years – but how can we give pupils an idea of how vast 1,000,000 actually is? Try our latest ELI 'How many for a million? How many sheets of graph paper for 1 million, or a 100 million, or a 1000 million?' Calculations to help pupils to visualise the enormity of a million years, and then 1000 million years.

There are other activities in this Geological time category.

Forensic geoscience

noreply@blogger.com (Earth Learning Idea) — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 19:21:00 +0000

Have you tried 'Innocent until proven guilty; using forensic geoscience to solve the crime'? This activity can be included in any lesson where problem-solving skills are required. It is adaptable to local conditions - local samples of soil, sand or rocks can be used. Also local suspects e.g. the teacher, can be used!
This is one of many practical Earthlearningideas available for free download from our website.

Collapsing volcanoes

noreply@blogger.com (Earth Learning Idea) — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 16:53:00 +0000

The last new ELI of 2012 is 'Collapsing volcanoes - cauldron subsidence'. Try making a jelly model of the ‘cauldron subsidence’ that can occur when volcanoes erupt and collapse. By doing this activity, pupils will appreciate that large scale surface features may be formed in volcanic regions, when magma beneath drains away or erupts and removes support from a vast cylinder of rock.

The best way of cleaning up from this activity is to eat it!

There are now nearly 150 Earthlearningideas on our website. You can search by topic name, keyword or category.

Unpredictability of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions

noreply@blogger.com (Earth Learning Idea) — Tue, 25 Dec 2012 15:57:00 +0000

Well . . . in this ELI, not exactly earthquakes and volcanic eruptions; rather, party poppers. We have added further extension material to the activity 'Party time for volcanoes!'

The total number of experimental runs (i.e. popped party poppers) aggregated over two large events (and a few smaller ones in between) is now 286. The arithmetic mean mass required to pop is 1.29kg. You may remember that last year one visitor achieved an unconfirmed 'world record' of 3.5kg - freakishly high as nobody else exceeded 2.3kg and, interestingly, this was mirrored last week - there was one instance of 3.4kg, with the next highest value being 2.1kg.
Thank you to the British Geological Survey for these data.
This is the time of year to try out this activity!
Season's greetings from the Earthlearningidea team.

How do we know about the Earth's Core?

noreply@blogger.com (Earth Learning Idea) — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 17:40:00 +0000

To find out, try the latest Earthlearningidea, 'A core activity'. Cut out sets of the 14 ‘Core evidence cards’ provided in the activity. Give a set to each group of pupils and ask them to sort the cards to show the evidence we have for the composition of the Earth’s core. Tell the pupils that the evidence may be on a single card, or a series of cards linked together, while some cards may contain no evidence for the
core’s composition. When they have sorted their cards, ask them to suggest what the composition might be, and give the evidence that supports this idea.
This is one of many activities in the 'Investigating the Earth' category.

Evolution after Man

noreply@blogger.com (Earth Learning Idea) — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 19:49:00 +0000

This video clip from YouTube fits well with our latest new Earthlearningidea, 'Fifty million years into the future'

Fifty million years into the future

noreply@blogger.com (Earth Learning Idea) — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 17:52:00 +0000

Our latest ELI is '50 million years into the future; an investigation of how animals become adapted to their environments'. Fictional animals have been ‘invented’ based on the principles of evolution. Pupils are asked to imagine what Earth might be like 50 million years in the future, assuming that mankind is extinct. They are asked to consider the imaginary Saurantel and Manspimon. How have these two animals become adapted to their environments?
Animals in the future will adapt to their environments just as they have in the past. Pupils often do not appreciate that animals and plants are still evolving and adapting to their changing environments.
This is one of many ELI activities in our Evolution of life category.