Mountain Building (6-12)
Overview of the box
Concepts and Standards
Lessons:
1 Why do mountains
look the way they do?
2 How to make a mountain
3 Erosion: What goes up
must come down
4 What are you made of:
rock composition & rock cycle
Activities:
1 Rock types
2 Rock cycle journey
5 Location and Setting:
Plate tectonics & mountains
6 Mountain histories:
a culminating activity
Online resources
Student Web Page
Teaching Boxes Home
Lesson 4: What Are You Made Of? The Rock Composition & Rock Cycle

What Are You Made Of? The Rock Composition & Rock Cycle

There are two activities in this lesson which bring together the concepts learned thus far and place them in the context of an Earth System. Students compare rock types and how they were formed. Students participate in a kinesthetic activity that models the rock cycle by having students visit different “stations” representing various rock cycle processes.

Concepts and learning outcomes

Students will understand that:

  • A rock's environment can modify it or completely transform it into something else.
    • Erosion changes rocks by breaking them down and moving them to different environments
    • Erodability is determined by a rock's resistance to mechanical and chemical weathering.
  • Rocks are categorized based on the most recent major change that occurred to them.
    • Three main categories are igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic.
  • Rocks have identifying characteristics that provide evidence of the changes that they have endured.


Time requirements


Two to three 50-minute class periods


Vocabulary


igneous, sedimentary, clastic, metamorphic, metamorphism, magma, lava, compaction, cementation, weathering, erosion , groundmass, phenocrysts, diagenesis


Background for teachers


Schoolyard Geology: Rock Stories successfully gets across the concept that that rocks have differences that give us clues about their origins. The activity only covers sedimentary rocks, but serves as a good foundation that can lead into either a further discussion of rock types.

Students record their ideas in the Mountain Building Journal and we provide suggested answers in the Mountain Building Journal: Teacher's Guide.


Activities


1. Rock Types: Students compare different rock types and determine distinguishing characteristics of the three types of rocks.
2. Rock Cycle Journey: Students participate in a kinesthetic activity that serves to familiarize them with the rock cycle.


Resources used

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