Summer SAVY, Session 6 Day 1, “Earth Science Rocks!” (1st-2nd)
Hello, families! Welcome to Earth Science Rocks! I’m so happy to be teaching your children this week! This is our “introductory day”, so we do A LOT to set the stage for the week. We discussed what scientists are, what geologists do, and pre-assessed their knowledge of erosion and rock/soil types. It was actually exciting to realize that this was the first time most kids had heard of erosion, for example. We will do several experiments this week that will further their knowledge about erosion, rocks, volcanoes, and how rocks are used all over the world!
I always begin my classes with an exercise called “Compass Points.” (https://pz.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/Compass%20Points_0.pdf) I use this for students to generate their own questions about class rules, schedules, activities, and things that they may be excited and/or worried about, and suggestions they may have for being successful and topics for the week. I especially pay attention to what students “Need to Know”. The students have questions about anything from “When is lunch?” to “What kinds of rocks are in the sea?” to “What’s the difference between rocks and minerals?”. This allows me to answer the questions and also see if kids are shy or worried or excited or interested in a specific topic. I always adjust my lessons based on these questions!
Our entire unit is organized around the concept of “change,” and so, we did several exercises around this concept that eventually led to the idea that the earth is changing constantly-and that erosion is a large component of the changes in landscape. The kids loved the example of the Wall Arch in Utah that collapsed. Their first guess was that a large storm blew it over, collapsing it, but they later learned that the structure weakened over time. We looked at a few other natural arches and predicted what they would look like in 5, 500, 5000 years!
ORA and lunch are fairly close together, so we have a built-in “Brain Break” every day, which will be a perfect time for quick videos, exploring something unusual, or answering their questions. Today, we had a puzzle to solve that led to the question “What is a scientist anyway?” Their questions led us to define word segments like “bio-“, “geo-“, “-ology”—so please ask them what they mean!
One of the students had a question about marine geology, so we watched a very cool quick video about a marine geologist who studies volcanic rock from great depths. We then FINALLY got to ROCKS! I have several rock samples and grouped them into Igneous, Sedimentary, and Metamorphic groups. The students do NOT know they are grouped together, but rather had to “think like a scientist” and describe what they observed. Tomorrow, we will discuss the three groups in depth and see if their observations lead them to realize that the three groups were different categories of rocks.
I’m very happy to have students share rocks from home if they would like to identify them with the class!
Happy Monday, everyone!
