December was a tough lab for me and my family. We hiked eight miles up hill both ways to the top of Charlie's Bunyan in the Smokey Mountains to collect rocks for students who attended the December Rock Lab.
Mitchell and Evan's Uncle, Game McGimsey, donated lots of items for us to use. Uncle Game is a Vulcanologist in Alaska. 
Students collected rocks from all three categories; sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks. Egg crates came in handy to store the loot!
We looked at some rocks online with 3D glasses. 
I let students choose a rock from my personal collections. 
Then they had to identify it using rock books.
Every student received a Petosky Stone and began to polish it according to the directions.
Some students wanted to see their rocks up close under the microscope.
Once again we borrowed a box from the US Polar Rock Repository. 
Students got to hold fossils from the South Pole. 
Of course there is always time for a few diversions like chasing a chinchilla under the table...
2 comments:
Great to see the kids involved in the scientific study. I am stunned by the beautiful collection of the rocks you have. I thinks its a great deal of learning for the students. Keep the good work going!
Science is experiments. To do experiemnts you of course have to go beyond the comfort level. But i like your spirits for teaching the young kids about new things.
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