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Science: Down Home Dinosaurs
students participate in hands-on activities to discover the different types of fossils. Using teacher-provided materials, they make models of cast and trace fossils. After writing essays describing how traces are formed, students plan a...
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Take a Stab!
Your geology class practices taking core samples of a potato to examine the stratigraphy. This is a terrific modeling lesson that helps youngsters visualize strata that cannot be seen from the surface of the ground. The directions...
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Sedimentary Structures- An Adventure in Painting and Collage
Students identify and interpret concepts about how the Earth was formed and convey some of these ideas in a painting.
Students experiment with different types of paints and paint applicators to achieve a variety of visual textures....
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Caldecott Tunnel
Students visit the Caldecott Tunnel. They examine dark brown basalt and the gray-green sedimentary rocks and draw picture of the rock layers in the cliff face. In addition, they write a short paragraph describing what you observe about...
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Petroglyphs: Protecting the Past
Fourth graders investigate the three types of rocks and study about petroglyphs. They explore why petroglyphs were used by the Nez Perce People. Students investigate the properties of the three types of rocks and they discuss cultural...
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Classifying Rocks and Minerals
Students identify rock types by observing key characteristics. Describe the differences between minerals and rocks. Observe rocks using a magnifying glass and draw shapes and colors of the minerals.
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Rock Discovery
Fourth graders identify rocks in this discovery lesson by examining rock characteristics and processes. They identify basic properties of minerals and rocks. They revise their theories of the natural world, once they see and learn new...
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Everybody Needs a Rock
Students, after making quantitative and qualitative observations of their rocks, construct a Venn diagram or dichotomous key to classify their rocks.
Polar Trec
Ice Cores: Modeling Ice Sheets
Ice cores provide scientists with knowledge of historic melt layers, air temperatures, greenhouse gases, and climate stability. Scholars work in groups to build layers representing snow and ice over thousands of years. Then, groups...
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Franklin Mountains
Fifth graders examine photographs of the eastern and western Franklin Mountains. As a class, they discuss what is shown and the different colored rocks and the orientation of the layers. In groups, they are given clay of two different...
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Relative Ages of Rocks
For this rocks worksheet, high schoolers review how sediments are layered over time and how the relative ages of rocks are determined. This worksheet has 1 matching and 11 multiple choice questions.
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Inspiration!
Students create a diagram based on rocks using a computer program. They use the program to put their thoughts in order and to have a sheet to reference to.
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Computer Lab Lesson Plan - Science
Students examine rocks and minerals. Using the internet, students research rocks and how they are formed. They use word processing software to list minerals and materials that form specific rocks.
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Minerals and the Products of Mining
Students plot where minerals come from and have an awareness of how mineral use makes the world interdependent. They examine how to identify some sort of mineral products they use each day.
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Where is Oil Found?
Students determine that crude oil is found in porous rocks (reservoirs) rather than in caves or caverns.
National Wildlife Federation
By Air, Land, or Sea: The Formation and Location of Our Natural Resources
Coal forms from the ancient remains of plants that were alive on Earth before the dinosaurs! Scholars use their t-charts from the previous lesson over resources and research to determine if their information is correct. Through analysis...
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Mineral Mixtures
In this science worksheet, students use basic scientific concepts to complete the series of puzzles that are intended to increase science literacy for classifying types of rocks and minerals.
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Shells on the Mountain Top?
Students work in groups to remove fossils from sediments, classifying as many organisms and parts of organisms as possible into major groups. They study the data from each formation and make conclusions about the types of organisms and...
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Geology Quiz Worksheet
In this geology quiz worksheet, students answer 10 fill-in-the-blank questions about geology. They answer questions about types of rocks, hardness, and mineral attributes. They check their work with the answers at the bottom of the page.
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Fossil Impressions of Ancient Life
Students make a mold using Plaster of Paris and then make a cast using that same mold. They pick a fossil and describe how it looks. They write a fictionalized story about its life, or burial. (
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CREATE A CAVE
Students investigate the concept of caves by conducting an experiment. The lesson contains background information for the teacher. They collect data while making observations and write a review of the concept once the experiment is...
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The History of Life
In this history of life worksheet, students complete a crossword puzzle by figuring out the vocabulary words associated with the 11 clues given. Then students review how paleontologists use fossils to learn more about past living things...
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Metamorphic Rock: Melting Rocks
Students observe and gain a better understanding of the metamorphosing power of heat. They mix mini-marshmallows and chocolate chips in a bowl and add just enough peanut butter so the mixture clumps together.
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"Making a Good Impression"
Students are shown how fossils are formed and to learn how extinct organisms lived based on their remains and surroundings. They are shown TAKS review problems on the overhead related to evolution and fossil evidence. Students discuss...