Earth Science Week Classroom Activities

No Child Left Inside Activity

The Human Rock Cycle

Grade Level: K-12 Earth Science

Activity Source: Developed by the American Geosciences Institute for the first No Child Left Inside event in 2008.

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Background

Students, like adults, have various learning styles. Some of us learn best by talking and listening, others by reading. Many of us, including young students, learn best by doing — by moving, exploring, touching, and feeling. Acting out geologic processes can be a powerful way of building understanding.

For the Teacher: Prior to conducting the activity, the teacher should divide students into groups of about three or four. Assign each group, in secret, a rock type — igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic — and tell them to discuss privately their strategy for acting out the group’s assigned rock type. No talking with members of other groups!

Materials

  • Rock samples or images of rock types

Procedure

  1. Quietly discuss with members of your group some creative ways to act out the rock cycle. How is your rock type formed? How does it age? How is it used by people? What does this look like?

  2. One group at a time, make your dramatic presentation. You can make noises if appropriate, but no talking!

  3. Once each group’s presentation is over, allow observers to guess which rock type was being acted out. What evidence suggests one rock type rather than another?

  4. After all groups have presented, discuss the rock cycle. How do the rock types differ? What do the processes that create them tell you about their age, location, composition, potential uses, and other characteristics?

 

Standards and Connections

NGSS

  • Disciplinary Core Ideas: ESS2.A: Earth’s materials and systems; ESS3.C: Human impacts on Earth systems
  • Science and Engineering Practices: Developing and using models
  • Crosscutting Concepts: Stability and change; Systems and system models

 

Sustainability Connections

  • SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production– Has students consider the processes by which time form, which affects their availability for human use and can lead to the consideration for sustainable use of rocks and minerals.