SOUTH CAROLINA STATE MUSEUM PRE-VISIT MATERIALS FOR
Beneath Your Feet!Overview: The earth is divided into four distinct layers. They are the crust, mantle, outer core and inner core. This lesson will focus on the components that form the crust. Students will observe and examine fossils, types of soils, sands, rocks and minerals. They will be shown several ways to identify different rocks and minerals. After they have practiced these tests, they will be challenged to identify mystery rocks and minerals.
| These are South Carolina Science Standards that this lesson will enhance. The standards were approved January 2000. |
| Grade 3 | Standard I
Process Skill 1a | Standard III
Properties of Earth Materials
1a, 1b, 1c, 1g & 1i |
| Grade 4 | Process Skills 1a & 2a |
| Grade 5 | Process Skills 1a &2a |
Before your museum visit:
- Get your students excited about the Earth Materials unit by making a volcano. Discuss why the types of volcanic rocks feel and look different.
- Begin a classroom earth materials collection. Ask students to collect earth materials from their neighborhoods. You may want to order some specimens. Many may be collected from various places, especially in mountainous areas. Ask your students to collect unusual rocks, different types of soils, sands and clays, fragment of fossils, etc. when they travel to different parts of the state or to other states. Let the students create ways to organize the collection.
- Use a microscope or magnifying lens to observe the crystals of minerals, such as rock salt, quartz and pyrite. Several attributes are used to identify and classify minerals. Some are color, hardness, crystal shape, etc. Each mineral has crystals that are made of specific chemicals, and these chemicals can form crystals of only one shape. Color is useful in identifying minerals but not as reliable as the other characteristics.
- Show students the shape of some crystals by using different chemical compounds to grow crystal gardens. Ask your students grow crystal gardens.
After your museum visit:
- Collect the field tools needed to perform the mineral hardness test. Collect some minerals and demonstrate how their hardness can be determined using the Field Hardness Scale.
| FIELD HARDNESS SCALE |
| Hardness | Common Test |
| 1 | Easily scratched with fingernail |
| 2 | Scratched by fingernail |
| 3 | Scratched by penny |
| 4 | Scratched easily by a knife, but will not scratch glass |
| 5 | Difficult to scratch with a knife, barely scratches glass |
| 6 | Scratched by a steel file, easily scratches glass |
| 7 | Scratches a steel file and glass |
- Take your class for a walk around the school. Ask them to observe ways rocks are used in or round the school and in nearby structures. As they call out the uses, make a list of them. When you return to the classroom, ask the students to think about other ways that they have seen rocks used. Discuss the uses.
- Make a display with items that are partly composed of minerals or rocks.
- Have each student find a rock and turn it into a pet rock by decorating it. They should give it a name and then make an identification card with information about it.
Cole, Joanna, (1987). The Magic School Bus Inside the Earth, Scholastic Inc., New York, New York.
Curtis, Neil, (1998). Spotlights Rocks and Minerals, Oxford University Press, New York, New York.
Gans, Roma, (1997). Let’s Go Rock Collecting, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, New York.
Murphy, Carolyn Hanna, (1995). Carolina Rocks! The Geology of South Carolina, Sandlapper Publishing Co., Inc. Orangeburg, South Carolina.
Symes, Dr. R. F., Eyewitness Book Rocks and Minerals, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, New York
Try the following web sites:
If you want to order rocks and minerals, contact one of the science supply companies:
Glossary:
Crust is the outside layer of the earth.
Crystal is a piece in a mineral that has a definite shape.
Coquina is a sedimentary rock formed when seashells are cemented together.
Fossil is anything left behind by prehistoric life.
Gemstones are minerals that show some form of beauty.
Geologist is a scientist that studies the earth.
Igneous is one of the three major groups of rocks; the rocks are formed when lava or magma cools.
Lava is melted rock that has come to the surface of the earth.
Luster is the amount of shininess of a mineral or object.
Metamorphic is a type of rock formed when other rocks change because of heat and pressure.
Magma is melted rock inside the earth.
Minerals are substances that occur naturally found in the earth and have never lived.
Rocks are solid earth materials, which are made basically of minerals.
Streak is the powder a mineral leaves when it is rubbed.