Weathering: By Falling Water

One of the ways in which rocks are weathered (broken down into smaller pieces) is by falling water.

Place a bar of soap on a sponge.  Set the sponge in a sink under a faucet.

Use the faucet as usual for a day, letting the water hit the soap and observe the soap at the end of the day.  Or you could let the faucet drip on the soap for the duration of the class period.

The falling water knocks particles of soap free.  Similarly, rocks at the bottom of waterfalls (or in other locations where water falls over them) are weathered by the falling water over time.  Of course, this process takes a very long time since rocks are lots harder than soap!

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Sand Collection

It's very simple to start a sand collection - every time you visit a beach or other sandy location, collect a small sample in a zip-top bag.  Ask your students to do the same on their travels, as well as colleagues and family members.  It won't take long and you'll have a variety of sand samples to compare and contrast. 

You can keep your samples in clear plastic bags and use a magnifying glass to observe, or if you've got the resources, you could store the samples in magnifier boxes.

The diversity of the samples will provide a variety of discussion points.  What is the sand made of?  Why is the sand the color that it is?  How large the grains of sand?  Why? 

For instance, the above sample was photographed (because one should never remove anything from a national park) at Acadia National Park.  You immediately notice, with the naked eye, that the sand is very coarse.  You'll notice that many of the pieces of sand look like crushed shells - for good reason, that's exactly what they are!  You'll also notice lots of different colors in the sand. 

I'm particularly fond of the blues, purples and greens.  The blue and purple pieces are crushed mussel shells.  The green "spikes" are bristles from a sea urchin. 


Along the same lines, retired science teacher Charles Lindgren has created the Science of Sand website.  He has solicited sand samples from across the country and world and photographed the sand at a 9X magnification. 

His samples are organized by state and country, and you're welcome to use the images for a virtual sand lab.  In fact, he's also included some lesson ideas. 

He's also always looking for new samples, so if you live or travel near sand, consider collecting a sample for him. 

And take a look at his site - the pictures are gorgeous, much better than mine!

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Journey on the Rock Cycle

If you've checked out the Science Spot (and once again, let me stress that if you haven't, you really should), you may have come across an activity called Riding the Rock Cycle. 

It's pretty self-explanatory...

Using the provided sheets, you make the dice for each station.  Students begin at one station, roll the die and follow the directions, which will lead them to another station (or they might have to stay put).  The students use the details of their "trip" to create a comic strip. 

But, here's a brilliant idea my mom thought of....

When she made the dice, instead of just having hollow, paper cubes, which are easily crushed and require care to store, she used wooden blocks for the center.   

It takes a little work to figure out the right size to make your copies of the dice.  But, once you have it figured out and make the dice by wrapping the paper around the blocks, they'll last a lot longer and you won't have to make new ones every couple of years.  

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Minerals: Introductory Activities

It worked out, one year, that I had to be away from school on the first day of my mineral unit.  I wanted to get started on minerals, and not fill the day with unrelated fluff, so I came up with these activities, which were simple for a sub to implement, but still related to the topic at hand.

Know/Want to Know

This is a pretty classic activity, in which students record the things they already know about the topic and they things they'd like to learn during the course of the unit.  This can be used for any topic, science or non-science.  Maybe not the most exciting, but a good starting point. 

Mineral/Rock ABCs

I challenged my students to find a mineral or rock that starts with each letter of the alphabet.  I left a bunch of books around that they could use.  It got them looking at pictures of minerals and at least a little familiar with the names of some of them.

Mineral/Rock Scavenger Hunt

I challenged the students to spend some time looking around the classroom and to list as many things as they could find that were made of/from rocks and minerals.

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