Key Questions Learning Teaching and Learning Resources and Websites Objectives Activities What is a rock? Develop Teacher to introduce activity. Large selection of rocks What words can awareness of Emphasise the need to to include the following: describe these variety of cooperate and listen to each “worked” (human rocks? properties of other’s opinions. shaped) rocks such as How can we rocks, Working in effective bricks, piece of sort these rocks variations in “Talk Groups” the children- concrete, rocks with into groups? colour, Label different fossils and some What is a fossil? patterns and “rocks/non-rocks” with isolated fossils, sand, What is a shapes within, descriptive words coal, metal objects, mineral? hardness, (adjectives). charcoal (not a rock), What is a crumbliness. Sort the moist clay and compact metal? into different soil. What is an ore? groups according to their -------------------- properties (eg “These are Pieces of paper for Can you find crumbly and you can labels the Dorchester break bits off, but these Pens/pencils area on the are hard.”) British Children “jigsaw” with a Oxford University Geological different group to share Museum of Natural Survey map? ideas (and swap “Talk History website: Can you use this Partners”) resource to Teacher leads discussion of identify some of findings and ideas. Bring in the names of “Key Questions” Internet access for the rocks that occur Some may be directly children locally? answered by the teacher, some may be better to be researched together, allowing the teacher to model research techniques. (eg “Let’s use Wikipedia to find out what is meant by an ore.”) The Oxford University Museum of Natural History has a useful website to help answer some of these questions of definition. Having taken out the the teacher then shows the children the rocks that were collected from the ground in the local area.
Key Questions Learning Objectives Teaching and Learning Activities Resources and Websites What is a rock? What words can describe these rocks? How can we sort these rocks into groups? What is a fossil? What is a mineral? What is a metal? What is an ore? -------------------- Can you find the Dorchester area on the British Geological Survey map? Can you use this resource to identify some of the names of rocks that occur locally? Develop awareness of variety of properties of rocks, variations in colour, patterns and shapes within, hardness, crumbliness. Teacher to introduce activity. Emphasise the need to cooperate and listen to each other’s opinions. Working in effective “Talk Groups” the children- Label different “rocks/non-rocks” with descriptive words (adjectives). Sort the into different groups according to their properties (eg “These are crumbly and you can break bits off, but these are hard.”) Children “jigsaw” with a different group to share ideas (and swap “Talk Partners”) Teacher leads discussion of findings and ideas. Bring in “Key Questions” Some may be directly answered by the teacher, some may be better to be researched together, allowing the teacher to model research techniques. (eg “Let’s use Wikipedia to find out what is meant by an ore.”) The Oxford University Museum of Natural History has a useful website to help answer some of these questions of definition. Having taken out the the teacher then shows the children the rocks that were collected from the ground in the local area. Large selection of rocks to include the following: “worked” (human shaped) rocks such as bricks, piece of concrete, rocks with fossils and some isolated fossils, sand, coal, metal objects, charcoal (not a rock), moist clay and compact soil. Pieces of paper for labels Pens/pencils Oxford University Museum of Natural History website: Internet access for the children