Curated OER
Rock On! Featuring the Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic Trio!
Get your classroom rocking with this four-lesson earth science unit. Through a series of shared reading activities and hands-on investigations, young geologists learn about the three types of rocks and the unique properties of each.
National Park Service
Rock Ranking
Junior geologists sort rocks and soil. They separate a sample of river gravel by size, shape, color, and other characteristics. To include Common Core standards, you could have little ones graph the number of particles in each sample.
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Rocks and Soil Changes lesson plan
Students recognize objects around their school made of rocky materials. In this changes in rocks and soil instructional activity, students use a website for a virtual experiment of rocks. Students group rocks based on their properties....
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Keying Rocks
Young geologists learn how to use an identification key in order to classify rocks. The key is designed to help them classify rocks into three types: ignesous, metamorphic, and sediimentary. After an initial teacher-led demonstration,...
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Earth Rocks!
Students study the basic elements of the Earth's crust: rocks, soils and minerals. They categorize rocks, soils and minerals and how they are literally the foundation for our civilization. They also explore how engineers use rock soils...
Teach Engineering
Rocks, Rocks, Rocks: Test, Identify Properties and Classify
Time is growing short. Teams work together to identify physical properties of rocks in order to determine the properties that would best suit their cavern shelter design.
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Classifying Rocks
A well-designed lesson plan on rock classification awaits you. In it, fifth graders are divided into groups. Each group is given a box of rocks which they must sort into two categories. They use the "Rock 'n Roll Rule," in making their...
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Rocks and Minerals
Review the difference between rocks and minerals using this resource. Learners identify and investigate the physical properties of these objects. They create a Venn diagram to compare and contrast types of rocks. This is a motivating way...
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Rocks and Soils
Students compare the properties of rocks and relate these properties to their use. They perform a virtual experiment to describe and group rocks on the basis of their characteristics.
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Rocks and Soil
Students explore the physical properties of rocks. They explore the three different types of rocks and are able to compare and contrast their different properties. Students simulate the creation of sedimentary rock, they also...
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Rocks and Soil: What is the Land Made of?
Students identify rock classifications and rock cycles. In this rocks and soils lesson plan students complete experiments on rocks and how they are symbols in the Bible.Â
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Environmental Studies: The Environment Rocks!
Rock exploration, so exciting! After reading the book Everybody Needs a Rock, the class makes sandwiches to better understand that the Earth is made in layers. They then use a description of the 3 types of rock to conduct an observation...
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Rooting Into the Soil: Examining the Relationship Between Plants, Soil, And Water
Students, in groups, conduct an experiment to compare how water moves through different soils. They discuss how different soils could have an impact on different plants.
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Hudson Valley Rocks
Students identify each of the rocks provided and locate where in the valley they are found. They explain why the rocks came to be as they are in each location. In addition, they relate the exercise to how the Hudson Valley's geologic...
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Rocks and Minerals
First graders examine different types of rocks and minerals. They create models of the rocks and minerals they find interesting. They discuss and explain three ways in which the earth changes.
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Big Rocks, Little Rocks
Learners simulate the effects of erosion on rocks. Students smash cookies into smaller pieces to simulate how sandstone is created from larger rocks. Learners hypothesize the types of things that could break up rocks and whether sand...
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Moh's Hardness Test
Young geologists utilize Moh's hardness scale to help them correctly sort and classify different types of rocks. This lesson has everything you need, including an excellent example of the Mohs' Hardness Test, to successfully implement...
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Rock Cycles, Crayon Cycles
Students examine the rock cycle and the path that rocks go through to rearranged in different ways. They define key vocabulary terms, then in small groups conduct a variety of experiments using crayon shavings as simulated rocks and...
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Science:Effects of Weathering
Seventh graders take an outdoor observation walk around the campus and take soil samples. Working in groups , they conduct experiments with rocks and soil that demonstrate the effects of different types of erosion.
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What Plants Need in Order to Survive and Grow: Soil
Students conduct an experiment to evaluate whether plants need soil to survive and grow. They plant two seeds, one with soil and one without, make predictions, and record and analyze the seed germination results on a worksheet.
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Pet Rocks
Students complete a variety of activities related to the physical characteristics of minerals. They classify and group candy, classify rocks and complete a Pet River Rock worksheet. Students try to guess which rock goes with each...
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Let's Take a Rock Apart!
Students examine a crushed rock and sort the minerals they find in that rock by color and other properties.
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Keying Rocks
Fifth graders observe several examples of types of rock and write about their similarities and differences in their science journals. They discuss their observations and discover that rocks are grouped according to the scientific...
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Classifying Rocks
Third graders classify rocks. In this rocks and minerals lesson, 3rd graders observe, make inferences and conclusions about rocks, minerals, soil and fossils.