Events

2008

• Geoscience Australia Open Day (Sunday 12 October)
• Earth Science Week (October 12 - 18)
• Event archive

Useful Earth Science tools and resources

• Geoscience Australia's education resources
• Geoscience Pathways - A valuable resource for teachers, students and community members looking to expand their earth science knowledge.
• Classroom Antarctica - Classroom activities aimed to stimulate upper primary and lower secondary classes about the real world.
• Teacher Earth Science Education Programme [PDF 537KB] - Spark student interest in Earth and Environmental Science across Australia.

Earth Science activities

• Make your own fossil
• Make your own volcano
• Pan for gold
• Build your own seismometer

Make your own fossil

Fossils are evidence in sedimentary rocks of things which existed at the time the sediments were being deposited. This evidence can take the form of skeletons (bone, shell, etc), traces of activity (footprints, burrows, etc) and even chemicals which are made by only living things. Sometimes the original skeletal fossil is dissolved and only a hole where it once was remains. This hole is called a mould of the fossil. Sometimes the hole is filled in later by other minerals, which take the shape of the original fossil. This is called a cast of the fossil. We can make our own casts of fossils and modern skeletons using plasticine and plaster.

Make sure you have the following equipment:

• Plasticine (in pads)
• Shells
• Paper plates
• Plaster (with cup)
• Food dye
• Foam cups
• Stirring sticks

Instructions:

1. Choose a shell from which you would like to make a cast. Flattish shells with patterns are much easier than round ones with lots of knobby sections.
2. Take a wad of plasticine and place on a paper plate.
3. Press the shell into the plasticine. Do it more than once or choose other shells to get a mixture of fossil shapes.
4. Roll some plasticine sausages and use them to build a wall around the edge of the plasticine wad.
5. Place two tablespoons of water in a foam cup.
6. Add a squirt of your favourite coloured food dye to the water.
7. Add three tablespoons of plaster and stir with a stick until it is well mixed and creamy.
8. Slowly pour the plaster mixture onto your plasticine shell impressions and fill the well.
9. Gently pat the mixture with your stick to encourage bubbles to float to the top.
10. Leave for about 15 minutes or until the plaster is hard.
11. Peel off the plasticine to reveal your very own fossils!

Make your own volcano

There are many different types of volcanoes. All involve the eruption onto the surface of molten rock called magma which discharges from the volcano as lava. Some explode very violently and do not create much lava but others which rarely have really big explosions produce large amounts of lava. Some grow into huge cone shaped, steep sided mountains while others spread out over large areas and do not have steep sides. Make a model which erupts like a volcano.

Instructions on how to make your own volcano [PDF 101KB]

Pan for gold

Gold panning is a wonderful recreation activity for all the family. Learning how to pan for gold is simple and lots of fun.

All you need is:

• A shovel
• A sandpit with a base of rocks and sand
• Water
• Gold nugget samples
• A gold pan or an old dishpan (gold pans can be found at hardware stores)
• A magnifying glass
• Tweezers
• A plastic vial to keep your gold

Follow these simple gold panning instructions:

1. Shovel about half a pan full of gravel mixture into the pan.
2. Fill the pan with water.
3. Shake it back and forth in a circular motion.
4. Tilt the edge furthest from you so that some of the gravel tips out of the pan. The lighter materials should be carried out of the pan with some of the water.
5. Repeat this process so there is only a small amount of gravel left in the pan.
6. Add more water and swirl the pan gently. Gold is much heavier than sand and will stay in the centre while the sand moves to the outside.
7. Use the magnifying glass to look for gold. Pick out the gold with tweezers.

Remember it takes patience, practice and a little luck to find gold but keep trying because there is nothing like finding gold in the bottom of your pan!

Build your own seismometer

Earthquakes are one of the most powerful natural forces which can disrupt our daily lives. A seismometer (size-mom-ett-ah) records the movement of the ground by measuring the seismic waves (shock waves) from an earthquake. A simple seismometer can be made to demonstrate the shaking of the ground.

To create this 'stomp test':

• Place a full glass or bucket of water on a chair
• Gather the class of students around the chair
• Jump up and down in unison

Ripples should be evident on the surface of the water. This demonstrates the shock waves present and represents those occurring during an earthquake.