Future Earth
Lesson 1
rocks in our lives
Learning intentions
1. To understand the variety of uses rocks have in our everyday lives.
2. Understand that many every day, common-place materials may have their origins in
the Earth.
3. Recognise uses that rocks are put to in the surrounding area of the school and/or the
home.
4. Understand that rocks are important in our everyday technologies.
Resources
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Pupil worksheet
Internet access for research, if required:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/7_8/rocks_soils.shtml
Excellent interactive site to ‘virtually’ test the properties of a variety of
rocks — slate, marble, chalk, granite and pumice.
http://gigaom.com/2013/02/04/the-periodic-table-of-smartphones/
A fairly technical site which does, however, clearly show how some very rare
minerals are used in the manufacture of mobile phones. A hard copy is also
provided.
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Future Earth
Lesson 1 continued
rocks in our lives
Introduction
Discuss with the children a class definition of a rock. It will probably be something
straightforward and unglamorous. You may like to (or be forced to by the pupils!)
introduce the term ‘mineral’. Rocks are made up of different minerals stuck together.
I spy something beginning with ‘R’ . . . It’s a rock!!!!
Play a ‘rock’ I spy game in the classroom looking for items that may have had their origins
as rocks.
Have the children look up, in front and down. List their suggestions on the board of
anything that has its origins in rocks. Encourage them to look beyond the obvious.
Remember anything made from metal is from a rock — right down to the blade on a pencil
sharpener.
Many building materials are made from rocks so this includes any brick, cement or plaster
on the walls or concrete under your feet!
Pencil lead is graphite and ‘chalk’ (if you still use it) is actually a mineral called gypsum.
Anything electronic contains metals and other minerals such as quartz and silicon — our
watches, the TV, computer, CD player etc.
And don’t forget the transparently obvious! Glass and all ceramics, including the teacher’s
coffee cup, all have their origin in rocks — be they clays in mugs or silica in the case of
glass.
A rock is a piece of naturally
occurring solid matter made
up of one or more minerals, or
rock or fossil fragments.
Minerals are non-living things
and have a definite crystal-like
structure. This means that they
do not come from plants and
animals and have a definite
shape. www.teachengineering.org
Concrete is that pourable mix of
cement, water, sand, and gravel
that hardens into a super-strong
building material. Cement is made
from limestone.
Graphite is a grey, crystalline,
form of carbon that occurs as a
mineral in some rocks.
Glass is made from a mixture
of sand, lime (calcium oxide
or hydroxide) and bicarbonate
of soda — all which come from
rocks!
Plastic? Surely not!
Gypsum is a soft porous
mineral that is commonly used
to make plasterboard, and
plaster-of-Paris.
Plastics are made from
chemicals which are derived
from oil — a fossil fuel — found
in rocks!
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rocks in our lives
Development
This is really an extension of the introductory activity but allows for outdoor learning. Take
the search for rocks and how they are used outside the classroom to the playground and
school grounds.
In small groups, starting at different places around the outside of the school buildings,
complete the worksheet which identifies rock-based materials used — bricks, plaster,
cement, concrete, stone, tarmac, slates (moulded or quarried), glass, metals etc. A simple
map of the school may be useful.
Leave the last column blank for discussion in class.
In class, report back on findings.
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How many different types of uses were there for the different type of rocks?
What made each material suitable for its job?
Was it strong, pliable, hard, soft, waterproof, transparent etc.?
Use the BBC website above to examine the properties associated with some rocks.
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/7_8/rocks_soils.shtml)
Ask the pupils if any of the rock materials they found looked like they may have just been
dug-up out of the ground, or did they look like they may have had something done to
them?
Bring in the idea of a process being carried out sometimes to make the rocks usable for
our purposes, e.g. ‘slate’ may be totally natural, quarried slate or processed from other
materials and shaped mechanically, bricks made from various rock components may be
more convenient to build with than locally quarried rock.
You may use the terms ‘processed’/manmade/synthetic/natural to classify the materials
the children discovered. Use these descriptions to fill in the last column of the worksheet.
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Plenary
Find out about expensive minerals used in smartphones. Understand that their high tradein value is due to the need to recycle these rare minerals. http://gigaom.com/2013/02/04/
the-periodic-table-of-smartphones/. A graph of which minerals are used in what part of
the phone could be drawn. Learning to say the words will be a challenge in itself!
Assessment for learning
Finish with a variation of ‘Snowballing’ (Active Learning and Teaching Methods page 63)
Have the class sit in a circle (or groups of smaller circles).
The first person says:
‘Today I discovered that our school is made of . . . which comes from rock’
Person two then says:
‘Today I discovered that our school is made of . . . and . . . which comes from rock’
The process is continued round the circle with each child adding a new material whilst
trying to recall the others previously named.
Activities
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Make and test your own ‘concrete’. Instructions as to how to do this can be found at:
http://www.teachengineering.org/view_activity.php?url=collection/cub_/activities/
cub_earth/cub_earth_lesson1_activity1.xml
Pupils should now have a greater appreciation of how important rocks are to our lives.
But what if a quarry was to be opened in your local area? Research the environmental
impact such a quarry could have. What would be the benefits and the drawbacks?
Pupils could produce a piece of persuasive writing from one point of view or a poster
in support or against the quarry proposal. Alternatively, they may produce a piece of
balanced writing, objectively setting out both arguments. Suitable writing frames are
available from the ‘Primary Resources’ website.
http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/english/english.htm#D
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