Mike Tuke’s

OTHER TOPICS Practice Field Sketches A I 10 min Students are given A4 photocopies of photos of cliffs or scenery with significant geological features. These are placed inside a clear plastic envelope. They then use non-permanent felt tip pens to mark on the important aspects. Demonstration of Field Sketches D A photo is shone onto the white board and the teacher then outlines the important features on the board. Meteorites E P F 1 hour Steel balls and marbles of varying sizes are dropped from different heights onto sand in a tray to determine the effect of speed, size and weight on crater diameter. Measuring density Many activities require the density of rocks to be measured. It is best if nylon line (fishing line) is glued to the rocks with araldite. Alternatively the rock can be suspended in a piece of nylon net such as oranges are sold in. Density and momentum D A polystyrene pseudo rock is good for illustrating the concept of density and momentum.  It can be thrown at students.  They can feel how light it is compared with the rock they expected and because it has much less momentum it will not hurt them. Coriolis force A P 5 min A large circle is drawn on a piece of card, or use the card base of a pizza. The card is placed just overlapping the edge of the table. One student presses down with a pen in the centre of the circle and turns the card while the other takes another pen and moves it straight out radially from the centre. the result is a spiral line. Magic chest D As a break in the lesson produce a small suitcase or box which contains a special sample for students to examine, or a sample for them to comment on or a photo for them to comment on. Pocket stereoscope I Stereoscopes are very good for looking at major topographic features such as volcanoes, meteorite craters, eroded folds, wrench faults, salt domes etc. There are books of stereo pairs of such photos. Risk and chance TE Get students to think about the chance of rolling a six or two sixes with dice or of getting an ace or a spade etc with a pack of cards. Geology in the News D A small display board in the classroom is used just for items of geological interest which have been cut from newspapers.  Students should be encouraged to bring in cuttings.  Display cabinet D A display cabinet is filled with interesting or spectacular samples which are labelled. The display should be changed regularly.  If the cabinet is mounted just outside the Geology room then non geology students may be attracted to study the subject. Describing pebbles I or P 5 min each Collect some interesting pebbles with faults, folds, unusual colour patterns, fossils etc.  Give one each to your students. They must describe the pebble in a much detail as possible.     Ties and T-shirts D Wear a tie or a T-shirt appropriate to the lesson.  Ties and T-shirts are available with trilobites and ammonites and one can have a T-shirt made with any design you choose. I have a stratigraphic column tie and an unconformity T-shirt Shop sign TE Ask students to explain this sign on a shop in northern Italy.    Granite is the Italian for flavoured crushed ice.

Earth Science Activities and Demonstrations