In this geology activity, learners create a model using a mixture of salt and sand inside a CD case. When the case is tilted or inverted, the mixture dramatically sorts into a layered pattern. With this model, learners explore the angle of repose and Brazil Nut Effect to better understand how avalanches occur. Educators have the option of building the model with or without learners present.

Earthquakes happen when forces in the Earth cause violent shaking of the ground. Earthquakes can be very destructive to buildings and other man-made structures. Design and build various types of buildings, then test your buildings for earthquake resistance using a shake table and a force sensor that measures how hard a force pushes or pulls your building.

In this activity, groups of learners work together to create edible models of chemicals involved in autotrophic nutrition. Learners use candy to represent elements involved in the chemical equations for chemosynthesis and photosynthesis. Learners complete a Lab Report based on their findings and understanding of chemosynthesis and photosynthesis. This detailed lesson guide includes background information, additional information for teachers of deaf students, and extensions.

In this edible experiment, learners pour "Magic Shell" chocolate into a glass of cold water. They'll observe as pillow shaped structures form, which resemble lavas on the sea floor.

This animation depicts how dissolved minerals carried by water are deposited between grains, forming a natural cement that holds the sediments together.

This page is from Discoveryschool.com. It has three sections. The first one, Down and Dirty, describes the various soil horizons. The second section, Field Guide, identifies some soil organisms and the third section, Soil Safari, is an animated tour of the soil beneath your feet.

In this hands-on and feet-on excursion, learners take a science walk to visualize the planet's immense size and numerous structures, without the usual scale and ratio dimensions found in most textbooks. Learners also compare their body's height to a scaled-down Earth.

Use this geology Jeopardy game to review concepts in earth science with your friends! Don't forget to answer in the form of a question and scroll down to find out the correct answer.

Learners draw comic-style pictures to show the water cycle. From a starting picture, one learner draws what happens to the water in the next panel, then passes the comic strip to another learner. Subsequent learners continue to draw pictures showing where water goes following what happens in the previous picture. Use this as an assessment or review activity after study of the water cycle. When learners set up a free account at Kinetic City, they can answer bonus questions at the end of the activity as a quick assessment. As a larger assessment, learners can complete the Smart Attack game after they've completed several activities.

In this activity, learners model hot spot island formation, orientation and progression with condiments. Learners squirt a thick condiment sauce on a coarsely woven fabric to model how volcanic island hot spots form.

In this activity, learners review and discuss weathering, erosion and mass wasting, to gain a stronger understanding of how Hickory Runäóťs Boulder Field was formed after the Laurentide Continental Glacier receded. Using edible materials, learners model and demonstrate the geological processes that formed this unique feature.

How do earthquakes work? Learn more about earthquakes, faults, P-waves, and S-waves in this HowStuffWorks video.

A one page article describing the formation of fossil fuels, enhanced with illustrations. At its end, there are three links to specific fuels: coal, oil and gas for more specific information.

In this two-part lesson, learners discover how large bodies of water can serve as a heat source or sink at different times and how proximity to water moderates climate along the coast. The activities' combination of laboratory investigation, map study, and graphing applies different learning styles and provides practice in important science processes.

In this activity, learners construct a coastal landmass from sand and add features such as tidal creeks and barrier islands. Learners then add varying amounts of water to observe the effects of storm surge on coastal land masses.

In this environmental science activity (page 3 of the PDF), leaners will identify and explain the causes of erosion. They will observe the effects of erosion on the surrounding area and further explore examples of erosion online. An extension activity allows learners to make a hands-on model of soil erosion. Though this was created as a pre-visit activity for a workshop about water flow and erosion, it makes a great stand-alone activity as well!

This animation contains three separate movies, each exhibiting the formation of igneous rocks in a different environment. You will get to see rocks forming from a deep magma chamber, rocks forming from a pyroclastic flow, and rocks from a fast cooling lava flow. Each movie concludes with a view of an actual hand specimen representative of each environment. The animation can be paused and rewound to stress important points.

In this activity, learners investigate the Moon's infancy and model how an ocean of molten rock (magma) helped shape the Moon that we see today. Learners create a simple model of this process by mixing household items of different densities in a bottle and allowing to them to settle into separate layers. Learners decide which materials make the best model for the infant Moon. Learners may examine a type of Earth rock (named anorthosite) that is also found on the Moon and that would have been shaped by the processes explored here. This activity station is part of a sequence of stations that can be set up to help learners trace the Moon's 4.5-billion-year history from "infancy" to the imagined future. Learners tie together major events in the Moon's geologic history as a series of comic panels in their Marvel Moon comic books.

In this activity, learners investigate convection by using food coloring and water of different temperatures. Through this experiment, learners discover the effect of gravity, density, and temperature on fluids and the phenomenon that "hot things rise and cold things sink," which is an important part of the weather cycle, water currents, etc.

In this demonstration, learners explore a variation of a Foucault pendulum, but upside down. This resource contains instructions on how to construct the device (the predecessor to the Foucault Pendulum) as well as how to demonstrate how it would move at various latitudes.