The Rock Cycle: An Interactive Exploration

DNA Extraction and Collection: This lab activity allows students to easily extract and observe deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) found in plant cells. They separate and spool the DNA so they can observe some of DNA’s physical properties. Students gain an appreciation and firsthand experience of the DNA structure. This lab activity comes with...

The purpose of this Lab-Aids® kit is to introduce the Crystal Systems found in minerals. Because this can be a difficult concept, four of the most common systems are singled out for study. Students will be able to construct these forms, study the geometric forms of the faces of these four crystal systems...

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...

Using a model, in the form of a game, students make sense of the different geological processes by which earth materials are cycled and the ways that these processes produce the three different types of rock. Students also consider how the flow of energy drives various geological processes that form rock. Finally, students develop...

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...

Part 1 introduces or reviews the features and interpretation of a topographic map. In Part 2, students use geochemistry to help locate mineral deposits. They choose 10 (of 24 possible) simulated soil samples to test for the “concentration of molybdenum.” They use their results to try to determine the location of the molybdenum ore deposit. They...

Copper and other raw materials contribute to our technological lifestyle, but the by-products of extracting copper from ore are potential toxic wastes. In this activity, students explore the properties of copper and copper ore. They conduct two reactions used to extract and recover copper from the ore. This process introduces single and double replacement...

Student groups use a specially engineered Lab-Aids river model to investigate the dynamics of erosion and deposition of sediments. Students observe, describe, and interpret the erosional and depositional patterns created when “rain” falls over a non-level sand surface. Common features created and described include stream channels, canyons, meanders, sand bars, and deltas....

Students examine four drill cores representing a fictional series of rock layers. They then use the evidence from each drill core to create a stratigraphic column for each location and use evidence from the cores to correlate to the layers from the different locations. They are then challenged to use this fossil evidence to...