News

By: Alan V. Morgan

If you are a person interested in geoscience education, August 2003 was the month to be in Calgary. The meeting was hosted by the Canadian Geoscience Education Network a standing committee of the Canadian Geoscience Council, but run by a small group of local volunteers over four days of meetings preceded and followed by some fantastic fieldtrips.

By: Peter Russell and Tharsika Tharmanathan

Lead

Lead is a very soft, bluish-gray, metallic element. Since it is so soft, lead is usually alloyed with other elements. Water pipes in ancient Rome, some of which still carry water, were made of lead. The English word plumber and pluming are derived from the Latin word for lead, plumbum. The properties of lead which make it an excellent material for many applications are its density, high level of stability, and it has high degree of flexibility, which makes it easy to work.

By: Alan V. Morgan

Continuing our story of the respective rock families we reach the third great group, the metamorphic rocks. Igneous rocks were covered in What On Earth 2002 Fall issue and the Sedimentary rocks in the Spring issue of 2003. All three categories are now covered in a new teaching poster that can be obtained at a minor cost from What On Earth.

Wat On Earth: March 2003 (PDF)

(Above) Wire copper on calcite, Tsumeb, Namibia © Peter Russell

(Below) Copper, White Pine Mine, Michigan. Donated to the Royal Ontario Museum by the Women's Association of the Mining Industry of Canada Foundation.

A couple of years ago in Wat on Earth (Fall, 1999) short-term variations in Great Lakes water levels, mainly resulting from meteorological effects, were described with passing reference to the effect of crustal tilting, which is a slow, long-term process.

Peter Russell and Kelly Snyder

Native copper vein in shale, White Pine Mine, Michigan

Inspire Your Students to Bring Earth Science to Life!

Earth materials are used in every facet of our lives. A walk through city streets provides an opportunity to observe various stones used in buildings, roads and pavements. Our homes, transportation systems and machinery contain metals derived from ore deposits. From computers to toothpaste, minerals are used in such a variety of products. We need only to observe objects used in everyday life to discover the unique and essential role Earth Science plays in today's rapidly changing world.

Alan V. Morgan

Pascale Côté, Bob Turner, John Clague