Hobbies And Interests
Digging for Treasure
Students from kindergarten to college love looking for buried treasure. This activity allows them to do just that and helps them understand how geologists find rocks and minerals in the ground. The teacher must prepare by making sand clay from clean sand, cornstarch, alum and water. The result should be a soft, pliable sandy dough which the teacher can press small mineral and rock samples into. He or she makes a little square or ball of dough for each student and passes them out along with plastic silverware, toothpicks and an identification worksheet. The sheet can have pictures for small children and descriptions for older students. The children must dig through their sand ball and identify the rocks and minerals properly.
Crystal Caves
Making their own miniature crystal caves helps students understand how crystals form under the earth. The teacher gives each student a small, clear glass jar and some string or toothpicks. The students fill their jars with warm water and dissolve as much salt, sugar or alum into them as they can. To show children how different chemicals change the colors of crystals, the teacher labels different colors of food coloring with chemical labels; for instance red could be iron oxide. The students drip the "chemical" of their choice into their jar and then coil pieces of string or drop a bunch of toothpicks into the jar. The students then set their jars on a windowsill. In a few days, the water will evaporate and the salt, sugar or alum will cling to the string or toothpicks and create colorful crystals.
Candy Rock Cycle
Teachers can help their students demonstrate the rock cycle with candy pieces. Hard sugar candy, like Jolly Ranchers, work well for this project. The teacher can recruit several students to help break up Jolly Ranchers with small rubber mallets; the candy should be inside plastic bags. Once broken up, the teacher explains that the broken candy represents sediment and asks the students to define sediment. One student then adds a little water to the broken candy pieces and presses, or compacts, them into a ball to form a sedimentary rock. After discussing sedimentary properties, the teacher adds the candy ball to a pan over low heat on a hot plate and allows a different student to press on the ball with the bottom of a drinking glass. This creates metamorphic rock. The teacher then melts the candy over medium heat to create magma and lets it harden for igneous rock.