teaching - Earth Science Teachers' Association

More documents

Recommendations

Info

TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 31 ● Number 4, 2006 Figure 2 (below) Museum staff taking part in a parent (Helen Fothergill, Keeper of Natural History) and child event. Evan is looking closely at his magnifying glass! Continued from page 13 ence. ESTA is such a close community of people with different areas of knowledge and experience, bringing together new ideas for the teaching of Earth sciences. As well as bringing new ideas to the magazine and the Conferences, the museum education officers themselves could learn about the different and inspiring ways in which the subject can be taught. It was a fantastic Conference; I learnt a lot and met a lot of wonderful people. I would like to say that schools anywhere could and should use museums any time of the year as a resource. On the other side of the coin, museum education departments need to know about ESTA and what a valuable resource ESTA can be for them. I also learnt, regardless of age or sex, what stamina the geology community has! I flaked out at 1:30am on Friday and Saturday nights after drinking some good – and some not so good – ales, but I am sure there were others who stayed on later, and managed to get up with no problem for the following day’s events! I might have been the youngest member at the Conference, but I think little Mr Loader may have put me to shame! Jan Freedman Assistant Keeper of Natural History Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery Drake Circus Plymouth PL4 8AJ Tel: 01752 30 4774 jan.freedman@plymouth.gov.uk www.plymouthmuseum.gov.uk Figure 3 Watching the reaction – a beautiful calcite block reacting with a mild acid. Geoscience Choices You will find a leaflet published jointly by the Geological Society and ESTA enclosed with this issue of Teaching Earth Sciences. Called ‘Geoscience – choices after school or college’ this is one of two free publications intended to provide basic information, and to give pointers to other reference sources. We hope this will be useful to students and teachers, particularly the latter who can use the poster side as display material in classrooms. The second leaflet deals with making career choices after higher education and is available from the Geological Society on request; see contact details right. This updating of careers information marks a new period of activity at the Geological Society, which now has an Education Committee and a dedicated (part time) member of staff. The Committee is concerned with issues at all levels, from primary school education to professional training and CPD. One major project over forthcoming months is the rebuilding of the Society’s website, which will include an expanded area for education and careers advice. There will be links between these pages and some ESTA projects, so that new ventures are complementary rather than overlapping. Work is already well advanced on a KS3 ‘primer’, which will be an ongoing project in 2007, although a first version of the webpages should be ready for launch in May when the new site is officially unveiled. So that you can keep up to date with progress, please visit the Geological Society website on www.geolsoc.org.uk. The Education and Training Officer, Judi Lakin, can be contacted using judi.lakin@geolsoc.org.uk. www.esta-uk.org 14
TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 31 ● Number 4, 2006 Blakeney Esker ANNA JARROW Blakeney Esker, on the north Norfolk coast, provides a fascinating glimpse into the region’s glacial past. With an aim of improving the public’s understanding of the esker and the local landscape, the British Geological Survey (BGS), Norfolk County Council, and Murray Gray of Queen Mary, University of London, have collaborated to produce a website for teachers and the general public. The website (www.bgs.ac.uk/blakeney) provides editable and printable teaching aids aimed at the A level Geography syllabuses, and supporting Microsoft PowerPoint presentations. The esker: BGS is currently mapping the geology of north Norfolk, a region that has been shaped by glacial processes. Glacial-interglacial cycles have controlled the Earth’s climate during the last 800,000 years. Norfolk has therefore experienced alternating periods of cold and warm environments during this time, each with differing landscapes, ecosystems and deposits. Ice sheets have advanced into the region during the cold periods, on at least five occasions, each depositing fresh material. The esker (Figure 1) is a meandering ridge of sand and gravel that started life as a tunnel beneath one of these glaciers. A river of water flowed through this, carrying large amounts of sediment, which were gradually deposited and eventually filled the tunnel. Although the glaciers have long since retreated, the esker remains as a prominent ridge on the coastal landscape, 3.5km long and up to 30m high, near the village of Blakeney. During the last hundred years, sand and gravel extraction from the esker has produced some useful exposures, providing further information about how the esker formed. The route of the esker is now highlighted on the landscape by the gorse that covers the ridge, attracted by its well drained sandy soil. The teaching aids: The first stage of this collaborative project, which started in November 2005, was a consultation phase with local school teachers. Following this, it was clear that teachers required not only teaching aids on the esker’s formation, but also the bigger picture of climate change, the geology of the region, and how glacial features such as the Cromer Ridge, a glacial moraine, are related to Blakeney Esker. All teachers agree that field visits are the best way to learn, but for various reasons such as inclement weather, finance or health & safety issues, they aren’t always possible. Based on this feedback, the Blakeney Esker Explored website (Figure 2) has been developed to provide free downloadable teaching aids to support A level Geography classroom teaching. Topics covered are Climate Change & Norfolk, Esker Formation, Biodiversity on the Esker and Eskers & Man. The teaching aids have been provided in three formats to IMAGES © BGS – NERC improve accessibility and give teachers the freedom to modify them for their syllabus or Key Stage. They cover diverse subjects and can be used for teaching both human and physical geography, A level Geology and Environmental Science. They are provided in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, and Adobe PDF (Figure 3). The Microsoft Word documents are editable, but the PDF documents have a smaller file size. The Microsoft PowerPoint presentations have been written to support classroom teaching using the printable documents. Continued on page 16 Figure 1 Blakeney Esker Figure 2 The Blakeney Esker Explored homepage 15 www.esta-uk.org
Page 1 and 2: teaching EARTH SCIENCES From the Ed
Page 3 and 4: Magazine of the EARTH SCIENCE TEACH
Page 5 and 6: TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume
Page 13: TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume
Page 39 and 40: ● Science Activities and Work She

teaching - Earth Science Teachers' Association

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?