Start

This lesson was developed as a web quest for the Web For Teachers class offered by the University of Chicago.It was designed to meet the science and language arts standards in reading and writing. It is meant to enhance the earth science study of rocks at the third grade level. Students will utilize the web to help them with this lesson about rocks.

In this lesson students will learn what sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks, how they are formed through the rock cycle, how to describe rocks by their individual characteristics and how rocks are used.

This lesson is anchored in the third grade science curriculum. It is based on the earth science study of rocks. It involves the areas of reading and writing as well. This lesson can be extended to second and fourth grades. The students will have to have a knowledge of how to use the mouse and the task bar.

Curriculum Standards

As a result of this lesson students will accomplish these Illinois standards and goals in the areas of science and language arts.

Science:
STATE GOAL 12: Understand the fundamental concepts, principles and interconnections of the life, physical and earth/space sciences.
*12.E.1a Students will identify components and describe diverse features of the Earth's land, water and atmospheric systems.
*12.E.2a Students will identify and explain natural cycles of the Earth's land, water and atmospheric systems (e.g., rock cycle, water cycle, weather patterns).

Reading:
STATE GOAL 1: Read with understanding and fluency.
*1.B.2a Students will establish purposes for reading; survey materials; ask questions; make predictions; connect, clarify and extend ideas.

Writing:
STATE GOAL 3: Write to communicate for a variety of purposes.
*3.C.1a Students will write for the purpose of explanation and description.
*3.C.1b Students will communicate through writing to create media compositions or productions which convey meaning visually for a variety of purposes.

Back to top

Process

Before begnning this lesson about rocks, the teacher will need to read the book Rock Collecting by Roma Gan. Students will then work with a partner to begin this lesson about rocks. It will take about six days or six computer sessions to complete this lesson. These are the steps students will do in order to complete this lesson about rocks.

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3	Students read Rock Creations at http://www.fi.edu/fellows/payton/rocks/create/index.html. Students will learn how the three kinds of rocks are formed. They will find the names of 10 rocks and list them with a short description on the Rock Descriptor Journal page.
Day 4	Students will construct a crossword puzzle using the 10 rocks with their description using Puzzlemaker at http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/ Then students will exchange their puzzle with another group and do.
Day 5	Students will take the Rock Hound Quiz at http://www.fi.edu/fellows/payton/rocks/quiz/index.html or the Name That Rock Quiz at Rock Quiz
Day 6	Students will read about the uses of rocks at Geology Rocks around You After reading about rock use, they will choose one way rocks are used.
Day 7	Students will design a poster advertising a product derived from a type of rock.
Day 8	Students will do an oral presentation of their posters in class.

Resources Needed

In order to best implement this lesson these are the necessary materials which will be needed.

*Rock Collecting by Roma Gans
*The Rock Descriptor Template for listing their rocks with the short description.
*For making the poster: poster board, scissors, gluesticks, markers, colored pencils, pictures from old magazines or from the computer.

Websites

Rock Hounds at http://www.fi.edu/fellows/payton/rocks/index2.html
Geology at Geology Rocks around You
Puzzlemaker at http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/
Rock Quiz at http://library.thinkquest.org/J002289/name.html

Evaluation

For this project the following activities and performances will be evaluated by the rubric below. Each activity will have to meet a given set of criteria. Students will be given points for each completed activity and receive a maximum of 100 points for all completed tasks that meet the criteria.

Name of Activity	Poor 5	Fair 10	Good 15	Excellent 20	Score
Rocks Descriptor	Listed one rock with one thing described.	Listed and described 2 to 5 rocks.	Listed and described 6 to 8 rocks.	Listed and described 9 to 10 rocks.	20 Points
Making a Puzzle	Unclear definitions of rocks.	Used 5 rock names with clear definitions.	Used up to 8 rock names with clear definitions.	Used 10 rock names with clear definitions.