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 Scientific Literacy - Building the Topic
Ask the students to predict what rocks are made from. What constitutes a rock? Attempt to elicit the response - "minerals". Jointly construct a definition for the term, mineral (A mineral is something found in nature that was never alive. The atoms of the mineral are usually arranged in such a way to give a particular shaped crystal pattern.). If possible, show some examples of different mineral crystal forms, for example: quartz, calcite, gypsum, mica and feldspars. Alternatively, show the students a piece of granite and point out the minerals that make up the rock: quartz (has a clear/glassy appearance); two types of felspar (one pale pink in colour, the other milky white); and mica (a small, black, glittery mineral). Ask the students to examine their own rocks for mineral crystals. Outline the concept that different types of rock consist of different combinations of minerals. For example, granite and basalt look quite different. One reason for this is that their mineral content differs. Ask students to suggest other things they are familiar with that are generically similar but characteristically different. For example, most cakes are made from flour, eggs, butter, and sugar, but a chocolate cake looks and tastes different from an orange cake because one of its primary ingredients is chocolate rather than orange. Encourage the students to make their own 'pretend' rocks by rolling items such as buttons, pasta, sequins, paperclips, marbles, coloured glass, or various pebbles into plasticine. Vary the combinations of items in order to make different 'rock' types.
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