Students will likely pay more attention when food is around.
When you are teaching a science lesson on geology, it can sometimes be difficult to get young students interested. One common geology lesson for middle school students explains the three different types of rocks: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic. While you might think that showing students these rocks is enough to hold their interest, chances are you'll need to use something a little more engaging and something that always gets people's attention, no matter how young or old: food. Use various types of food to model rock types in the classroom.
Instructions
1. Gather excellent examples of the three different types of rocks. While you can use food to get the students' attention, you still need to have the real rock samples to show them the characteristics that the food demonstrates.
2. Explain the basic characteristics of the three types of rocks that you will demonstrate with food to start the lesson. Sedimentary rocks feature layers. Igneous rocks are formed from cooling magma, meaning they go from a liquid to a solid state. Metamorphic rocks form as a result of their environment; they become unstable from introduced environmental elements.
3. Bring a layered cake to class to model sedimentary rocks, which have a lot of layers. Be sure you bring a cake with at least three layers, but the more layers the cake has, the better the lesson will be. Slice the cake in half and show the class the layers of the cake next to the layers of your sedimentary rock example.
4. Melt wax to demonstrate the properties of igneous rocks. These rocks are formed from cooling magma. This means a hot liquid material cools and becomes a solid. Melted candle wax is also a hot liquid that will cool to become a solid. You can do a simple demonstration by lighting a candle and watching the top layer of wax melt, or you can melt a larger amount of wax for the class using a portable stove. Boil water in a pan on the stove. Place another pot with the hard wax inside into the boiling water. Once the wax is melted. Remove from heat and allow it to harden again.
5. Teach the change in state that occurs when a metamorphic rocks is created by baking bread with a portable bread maker. Metamorphic rocks change as a result of their environments. The bread dough will bake as a result of the introduction of heat and will rise due to the introduction of yeast. Showing this to your class can demonstrate how one state of matter can be altered into another simply by changing the environment.
Tags: types rocks, cooling magma, different types, different types rocks, formed from, formed from cooling, from cooling
