The Rock Cycle

Fossils provide important evidence about changes in life on Earth. This kit provides students with the opportunity to handle and examine eight different fossils from various localities and geologic ages. Fossils of species that are no longer living provide evidence for extinction; fossils of species similar but not identical to those alive today provide...

This activity begins with a fictional newspaper story describing how hikers may have discovered diamonds in a national forest. In Part I, students then observe rock samples and use a table of characteristics to help identify each rock as igneous, metamorphic, or sedimentary. Students then use this knowledge to identify the type of rock...

Student groups use specially designed and annotated puzzle pieces representing the earth’s continents to investigate the idea of continental drift. In Part I, an exploratory activity, students attempt to fit the puzzle pieces into one large continent using clues provided by the shape and the geologic evidence contained on each piece. In...

This activity provides an active-learning alternative to traditional passive methods of studying the rock cycle. As students “become” a small quantity of earth material and “travel” through the rock cycle, they experience the interrelated processes and materials that shape the world around us. Eight rock cycle stations, each representing a...

In this investigation student use actual data and a CD-ROM computer simulation designed at the Lawrence Hall of Science to investigate the geology of plate boundaries. In Part 1, students compare and contrast continents with continental plates, draw plate boundaries from earthquake and volcano data, and label the major plates with their names and arrows...