At a glance
Rocks and Minerals is a 60 or 75 minute workshop for grades 1, 3, 5, 7 and 8. Through role play, observations of gold and silver and magnesium fireworks, students study the three great families of rocks and the movement of tectonic plates.
Did you know we are moving west by 1 cm a year?
Beneath our feet, tectonic plates rub and bump against each other, causing natural disasters and shaping the landscape of planet Earth.
To understand these phenomena, your geologists study the three main kinds of rock in the ground, then find out what mineral treasures lie buried beneath their feet!
Role play, gold and silver to observe and magnesium fireworks will make their knowledge rock solid!
For 15 more minutes:
Discover our rock and mineral collection!
Learning goals (elementary)
- Describe how the Earth formed and what it is made of.
- Know the three main families of rocks (igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary).
- Explain how tectonic plates move.
- Tell a rock from a mineral.
- Classify rocks by their properties (layers, crystal size) and minerals by theirs (colour, crystal shape, reaction to acid and hardness).
