'Failing slopes; modelling how rock cliffs and slopes can collapse'.

This activity investigates the factors which affect the angle of slope at which materials fail and slip. It could be used in a lesson on slope failure itself, or as an application of the physics of friction.

Watch the teaching video

   

'Atmosphere and ocean in a lunchbox; a model for all pupils – of hot, cold and cloudy density currents

This ELI develops an earlier teacher demonstration in 'Atmosphere and ocean in a tank' into a smaller-scale model for pupil group use.

It explains how warm ocean water, or warm air, rises upwards while cold ocean water or cold air, sinks. It then demonstrates how density currents flow in the water, or air, and can be used as an analogy of density currents in the oceans and atmosphere.

Related activities can be found in our Oceanography category.

   

Our new very exciting ELI today is 'The invisible plastic problem – can you find what the eye can’t see? - finding microplastics in the local environment using simple separation techniques'.

This activity introduces pupils to environmental sampling and density separation. It demonstrates how a saturated salt solution can be used to isolate microplastics from soil or sediment and shows how pollution can be studied using simple materials.

Other activities in this category can be found in 'Environment'.

   

 Have you tried 'Counting to one million? - trying to imagine the enormity of geological time'.

This Earthlearningidea is an activity to help young children to understand deep time.

Related activities can be found in our Geological Time category - Visualising deep time.

   

And now for something completely different - such is the scope of Earthlearningideas. 'How many sand grains are there in a bucket – or on a beach? - planning activities to estimate the number of sand grains in a bucket – or on a beach'.

More Earthlearningideas involving some maths can be found in our Cross Category topics - Maths in ELIs