earth sciences week... join the fun...
Earth Sciences Week, the second full week in October, is an annual celebration of the geosciences.
It aims to enhance people’s awareness of the importance of earth sciences to our lives and to help you understand how the Earth works. This international event is supported by the American Geological Institute and even former president Bill Clinton is a fan!
This year’s theme is ‘'Water is All Around You', emphasizing the importance of the Earth's greatest natural resource- and Planet Science is here to help you get involved!
We’ve put together some brilliant hands on activities for the home and classroom with some great links to web sites where you can find out about different rocks, minerals and fossils, get hold of earth science resources for teachers and try plenty more experiments. And if all this inspires you to be an earth scientist we’ve got the information to help you get on the right track.
experiments...
- Help Help Volcano!
We don’t have any active volcanoes in the UK but you can make your own with baking powder and vinegar. Stand back! This volcano will explode in your kitchen!
- Lava Flow!
Create mini volcanic eruptions and build layers of lava using play dough!
- Bread Rock
Recreate the formation of sedimentary rock using left over bread and your hob
activities...
earth quake!
To launch Science Year in September 2001 thousands of people took part in the Giant Jump by jumping at the same time across the county. This year, schools in Australia will be re-enacting the Giant Jump- and you can too.
Click here for all the instructions, including how to do the Giant Jump, some fun earth science facts, and information about how to build your own seismometer. We’ve got 3 different designs for you to try on the day of your jump. These include a simple cardboard box and pen and a solenoid sensor- where vibrations cause a coil to move around a magnet, generating a voltage. The greater the voltage the greater the vibration detected- so what are you waiting for? Jump to it!
been inspired?
Do you enjoy working outdoors? Do you like travelling? Do you like puzzle solving? Then you may have what it takes to be an Earth Scientist! Why don’t you go to the NEXT STEPS section of our web site and check out what real earth scientists are up to in our Meet Your Match (interactive site feature) database?. You can also access more information on careers in Earth Science from the Official Earth Science Week website.
want to find out more?
Official Earth Science Week website, with plenty of activities for the classroom based around this years theme- water! (the curriculum focus is North American, but this site contains some good universal activities)
If you are interested in how volcanoes work or why earthquakes happen, How Stuff Works has all the information you could need.
The BBC education site contains a series of fun geology activities to do at home or in the classroom, including Chocs Like Rocks, the Sedimentary Sandwich and Rock Cycle experiments
The Earthlab Datasite is an accessible database containing info on over 2000 UK rocks, minerals and fossils.
links for teachers
http://www.matter.org.uk/schools/content/Seismology/index.html
Provides good lesson resources from the University of Liverpool’s MATTER Seismic Waves site
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/geolsci
Offers loads of earth sciences-related material for schools including downloadable activities, access to geology loan boxes, summer school programmes and a school questionnaire.
http://www.esta-uk.org
The UK’s Earth Science Teachers Association website
<< Go Back