Component 1: Ride the rock cycle
1. Do Now/ Journal Prompt: List the three different types of rocks and describe how they are formed.
2. Student share their responses. Teacher compiles information on a chart to represent the vocabulary visually.
3. Introduce the activity: Students will be a rock going through the rock cycle. They will roll the dice to find out where they go next. Students will fill out the attached organizer ( rock cycle worksheet) to collect their data
4. Break students up into groups (3-4 students per group)
5. Student groups will pick a station slip out of a “hat” to determine where they will begin.
6. Students will roll the dice (Rock cycle dice) at each station and record the data on the rock cycle worksheet. Then they will move to the station the dice directed them to.
7. Once the students have traveled to 12 stations they are done.
8. Students will use the comic strip outline found on the attached worksheet (rock cycle worksheet) to make a comic about their movement through the rock cycle (encourage students to be creative by adding dialogue and thought bubbles to use the domain specific vocabulary)
Component 2: Represent Data
1. Do Now/ Journal prompt: Students will need their (rock cycle worksheet) to complete the (Rock cylcle data collection) sheet that will be used to answer the following questions
a. Are the life cycles of rocks predictable?
i. State your claim
(exampe: The life cycles of rocks are/are not predictable).
ii. Use your data to support your claim using locations and environmental factors
(example: Four out of twelve times I was at the volcano station. Tectonic activity was the most frequent. ).
iii. Write a conclusion (This shows that..)
2. Students will be assigned the task of representing their data. (Student choice or teacher choice) You can offer the students multiple graphs to choose from to analyze the effectiveness of each representation OR Students can all be assigned the task of making a pie graph.
3. With that data students will visit http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/default.aspx to make a pie graph to show the amount of time they spent in each station. Students can also complete the attached extension activity (making a graph with rock cycle data) that guides students to convert the data and make a pie graph using a protractor.
4. Students will analyze their own graph and answer one of the following questions (student choice or teacher choice)
a. What are the benefits of using a pie graph to represent this type of data? (possible answer: This data is about the part of a whole)
b. Were you able to obtain more information from the data table or the graph? (possible answer: A data table is more specific. It’s easier to understand a pie graph because its visual.)
c. Are the life cycles of rocks predictable? (Possible answer: They are not predictable because we all have different data. It is predictable because I kept going back to the volcano station.)
d. What did your data show? (Possible answers: I spend 50 percent of the time in the soil because of deposition)
e. What were some of the environmental factors that you encountered? (I was melted in the core of the Earth.)
5. Students will present their data and their responses to the question. This is a good time to prompt responses that will aid your class in completing the writing component.
Component 3: Literacy
6. Students will complete an informational essay
a. See attached task.rubric. (Provide students with transitional phrases and domain specific vocabulary if support is needed)
Are the life cycles of rocks predictable?
i. State your claim (The life cycles of rocks are/are not predictable)
ii. Use your data from Ride the Rock Cycle and the class share.
iii. Write a conclusion that addresses claim and evidence.
Component 4: Design
1. Do Now/ Journal: What are the environmental factors that can affect a rock?
(intended response: erosion/weathering, deposition, cementation/ compaction, heating, pressure, cooling)
2. Students share responses as the teacher records answers to provide a visual.
3. Students are given the task to design their own experiment that will represent the life cycle of a rock.
You must design an experiment that will represent the environmental effects of the life cycle of a rock using a crayon. Identify what you will you use to represent each factor. (example: Sharpener, candle, hand friction, cold water).
i. Erosion/ Weathering
ii. Deposition
iii. Cementation/ Compaction
iv. Heating
v. Pressure
vi. Cooling
Students are offered the opportunity to brainstorm this alone, with a partner or in a group.
EXAMPLE: Students will...
break down crayons with a crayon sharpener
deposit the sediments using foil
show heat and pressure with hand friction
show intense heat and pressure with with the flame of a candle and a book
cool the “magma” in a cup of water
*visit http://www.geosociety.org/educate/lessonplans/rockcyclelab.pdf to see a model
Component 4: Rock Cycle Simulation
1. Students will be provided the materials that they need to complete their simulation.
2. Students complete the simulation that they designed
3. Students will display their results on the attached Rock cycle simulation display sheet. (have them save a piece of each type of rock before they move on to the next stage)
4. Students will label each sample and will label arrows with the processes (erosion/weathering, deposition, cementation/ compaction, heating, pressure, cooling).
