Further program suggestions

For day visits, stay visits and repeat visits for short and longer term projects.

Extension Activity 1: Making Dinosaur Footprints

This task is provided to highlight a technique used in science and links it to the footprints they observed at Mount Morgan. Remind them that Science is a process of trying to understand the world and we use experiments and observations as our clues to solve a puzzle.

It could be linked with a study of dinosaurs. Discussing how the evidence was collected and how we are able to piece these bits of information together to get a picture of a dinosaur.

How did the dinosaur leave this footprint?

Task

How do we know how tall the dinosaur was from evidence such as this? (See 'An Overview of Dinosaur Tracking')

How do you make a cast? (See 'Making Plaster Casts of Footprints')

To make your own footprint in the ground is easy.

1. Simply use a large tray and fill it with sand. Take off your socks and shoes and carefully stand in the sand.

   Very carefully remove your foot.

   This is just like what the dinosaur did, but probably not the part about the socks and shoes!

   Your footprint will not last long before the sand collapses.

   We could record this footprint by pouring a mixture of water and Plaster of Paris into the footprint. Leave to dry! Once dry you can lift it out of the sand and have a replica of your foot!

2. Now take another tray and add some cement to the sand, mix in water and leave to set.

   Place your foot in this mixture before it becomes too dry.

   This footprint will last a long, long time!

Experiment

Investigate how a person’s foot length relates to their height.

Collect information from the footprints made in the plaster for all the people in the class. Measure all their heights.

Plot all this information (foot length versus height) on a scatter graph. Draw a "best-fit" line through the scatter plot to determine see if there is a pattern between foot size and a person’s height.

Test your best fit line by getting a new persons foot length and try to predict their height from your scatter plot - see if you were right.

Would your plot work to predict a dinosaur’s height? Explain your answer.

Extension Activity 2: Returning to Mount Morgan

Mount Morgan is a very special site. In just under one hundred years huge amounts of material were removed and the shape of the hills was changed and the river below the mine has never been the same again.

How can we help?

One of the biggest problems facing Mount Morgan is the amount of sulphide containing rocks that have been discarded as tailings or waste from the mine. Much of that material has not been washed downstream but collected in huge piles that form the hillsides. These deposits influence the types of plants and grasses growing in the region.

1. We have measured the pH levels of the water in the dam and the river. To repair the region we need to see how these materials have spread and how it varies with depth.

   You can get garden pH test kits because many plants prefer slightly acidic soils and many slightly alkaline (another way of saying base).

   When visiting Mount Morgan test the surface soil and dig a test hole so the pH can be measured at different depths. Remember to keep all material so that it can be carefully returned to the hole and any grass replaced.

2. Photograph and identify the types of plants growing. Check the pH of their soil and see if it is optimum for their growth.

   Produce a report of your findings – create a class webpage to publish your results.