Exploring Geology

We had so much fun exploring geology! After being rock detectives, it was time to hit the road. First we met a REAL geologist (and paleontologist!),  Joan, who is a double Ph.D., and the owner of Jerry's Rock and Gem shop. She talked about her love of learning, advised the students to learn as much as they can about EVERYTHING they are interested in (no need to limit yourself to one topic, she said -- she's living proof!), showed us some fossilized dinosaur eggs, and then let us browse her shop to find our own treasures! 

We also visited the Burke Museum at the University of Washington in Seattle, where we met another geologist, who led us through some more rock identification experiments and a scavenger hunt through the museum's geology section.

We wrote our thank-you's when we got back:

Then we studied crystals and tried making some of our own using sugar solution and also a borax solution.

We cracked open some geodes that we bought at Jerry's Rock and Gem, and were delighted by what we found inside!

And, finally, we mapped out earthquake activity to discover the outline of the Pacific ring of fire, then constructed our own volcanoes and made our own ring of fire -- on our playground!

What a lot of fun! 

Rock Detectives

We love using inquiry-based learning here at Seabury, and we aspire to get kids thinking like the scientists who work in each particular area we study.  As part of our study of geology, we played "Rock Detectives," and used the same types of objects and tests geologists use to identify 17 different types of rocks. We looked at color, sheen, texture and noted whether the rock had layers or crystals. We did some tests on the different samples -- do they float? Are they magnetic? Is the streak color the same as the rock itself? We also did some scratch tests and compared results to the Mohs hardness scale: 

We also examined a lot of rocks in class:

Do these pictures look all that different from this one of Noah, below? He's a real-life Geologist (and Seabury Alumnus), pictured here testing rocks from our sample collection to see if they are calcium carbonate rocks (i.e. limestone, marble) using a Muriatic acid solution. Thanks, Noah, for sorting this out for us!