Summary
What's the big deal about rocks? They don't move, aren't flashy, and seem pretty useless to the untrained eye. To discover the beauty of rocks, one must look closer and learn how to read them. Geologists are rock detectives, discovering clues to the ancient past. If you know how to read them, rocks can tell an observant scientist about what a place looked like millions and even billions of years ago. This activity introduces the 3 main types of rocks and the processes that form them. Wax crayons are eroded into sediment, compacted into sedimentary rock, partially melted and pressed into metamorphic rock, and finally melted and cooled into igneous rock. This understanding is the basis of the rock cycle. In the Going Further section, there is a recipe for making your own sandstone, siltstone and conglomerate using sediments and a sodium silicate solution.
Objectives
Can describe the 3 major types of rock (sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous) and discuss the relationships between them
Can diagram the rock cycle
Given one of the three major types of rock, can describe the geologic processes that formed it
Vocabulary
Sedimentary rock
Erosion
Sediment
Cement
Lithifaction
Metamorphic rock
Igneous rock
Magma
Rock cycle
