Geology Rocks! - Activities

What is Geoheritage?

Geoheritage combines two words, geology and heritage.
Geology is the study of the rocks on earth and in the universe and how they change over time.
Heritage can be objects of value. In this case, the object of value is the geology of a place, the Keweenaw Peninsula.
In this lesson we'll explore the rock cycle and its different stages. This will help us understand how rocks form and change over time.

Why is the Keweenaw's geoheritage important?

1. Some of the largest, oldest lava flows in the world are on the Keweenaw Peninsula. They help us understand how this region formed over millions of years. These lava flows also contained copper.
2. People have been mining copper for thousands of years here. In the 1800s people started calling the Keweenaw Peninsula, the Copper Country.
3. Geoheritage helps us understand how the landscape and geology influence our lives everyday.

Watch the video below to learn about the rock cycle and answer the questions after!

Video Questions

What are the three main types of rocks?

What forces change the rock types?

Where do the different rocks form?

How can you tell a sedimentary rock apart from other rocks?

Activity 1

Depth of Time Activity:

Activity Objectives: Use your wingspan to help you measure deep time. Deep time helps us think about how long the rock cycle takes.

1. Stand up and stretch out your arms out so you make a T-shape. From finger tip on your left hand to finger tip on your right your arm are now the whole length of time since Earth was created. 4.6 billion years.

Rocks started to form 4.5 billion years ago.

1. The distance from the fingertips to elbow is 1 billion years.
2. One million years ago to now is represented by just the white part at the very tip of the fingernail.
3. A tiny speck of dust on the tip of the fingernail is the last 1,000 years.
4. Human have been around for around 4 million years, which is not even half of the length of a fingernail.
5. Rocks have been around for the length of your wingspan!

Activity 2:

Rock Cycle Comic

Activity objectives: Tell the story of the rock cycle through deep time.

Activity 3

Fill in the Blank Rock Cycle:

Activity Objective: Learn the rock cycle and the way different types of rocks are formed. Uses the visual spatial and interpersonal intelligences.

1. Organize students into pairs
2. Pass out a blank copy of the rock cycle sheet (page 2 & 3 of the rock cycle activity pdf), scissors and glue sticks
3. Have students cut out the words
4. Working together, have students fill in the blanks and glue the correct answers in.

Blank Rock Cycle Activity Sheet
Rock Cycle Key Words Activity Sheet

Alternative Activities

Rock Cycle Freeze and Melt Tag

Activity Objective: Learn about the rock cycle interactively through movement. Uses interpersonal and bodily kinesthetic intelligences.

1. Depending on the size of the group select a few students to be "cooling" and one student to be "heating." Hand out printed identifiers to the tagging students. Everyone else is "magma/lava"
2. The game start with lava moving around freely. The "cooling" students try to tag the "lava" students and turn them into rock. When a "lava" student is tagged by a "cooling" student they freeze.
3. The "heating" student runs around and tags the frozen students who are rocks and turns them back into lava.
4. Allow the game to proceed, if time allows switch the "cooling" and "heating" taggers.
5. After the game is over, have students turn and talk with a partner about the following, or similar questions:
   1. Why did people have to freeze when they were tagged by "cooling" students? Think about the rock cycle. (When magma/lava cools it turns into a rock.)
   2. What happens when a rock heats up really hot? (Melts and becomes magma)