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Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Geology ~ Rock On!!!

Rocks, rocks and more rocks – UGH!  I did not have a good teacher in school with this subject.  I went from a kid who LOVED rocks to totally hating them and thinking – why do I need to know this?  I need to find my inner detective and love for rocks on this subject!

Our first examination is the earth’s crust.  Let’s get some experiments going on here.  Or just some sort of visual because this earth is huge!

For starters – let’s boil and egg.  I had the boys peel the shell off.  This is our earth’s crust.  How exciting!  Look at how thin it is from the rest of the egg.  We will come back to the egg later when we learn about the next layer.  I bet you are just on the edge of your seat about this, right?

Back to the crust {shell} is only 3 miles thick under the ocean and 45 miles thick under the mountain ranges.  Not too thick – right?

What is this crust made of?  Dirt/Soil

What is dirt /soil made of? Decaying leaves, rotting plants, grounded rock and sticks.

Next, let’s put some dirt/soil into a glass jar and cover with water.  Tightly screw on the lid and shake for a few minutes.  Leave this overnight to see what happens to your soil.  It would be neat to compare different soils from different areas but we are not going to do that.  The next morning you will find all organic matter floating at the top and the heavy mineral particles at the bottom and it may even form layers –if you’re lucky.


7 comments:

  1. Love the egg idea! We are going to do rocks after our habitat series. Thanks for the great idea!!
    New follower from Hip Homeschool Blog Hop
    Renita
    www.krazykuehnerdays.com

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  2. Looks like a great experiment. We will have to give this one a try. We are loving science right now.

    About the Kindle eBook for the 31 Day Challenge, I am not sure if it will work on an iPad. I don't have an iPad... only dreaming about having one ;) I would think if you can get the Kindle app on it though, it shouldn't be a problem. But, I can't say for sure. Sorry :(

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  3. what a great experiment! We just put an egg in vinegar for a day to see the shell get soft (eat the calcium) and then into water - it turned into a water balloon and exploded! LOVE SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS - thanks for sharing!!

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  4. Stef that is so funny! I am to have to try that. Thanks for stopping by :-)

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  5. I love this experiment. What a great idea. This is going in my science file for sure. I have 3 boys and they learn so much better when I do an hands on activity or experiment vs sitting and reading borng text material. :D

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  6. Amy, Thank you for stopping by my blog today. I am so glad you did. You have some great resources that I want to look through......

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  7. Amy, Thanks for being my newest follower. First off its really hard to say about our weather but August tends to be our rainy season. My husband and I live north of Anchorage. I am sitting here trying to think of activities in Anchorage and I can't. Although if you want a bit of Native culture, I have heard The Alaskan Native Hertiage Center is a good stop. There are lots of Great Shops and Dining. Most of the time when family comes up we go all over Alaska. Anchorage is kind of our last stop for gifts etc.. . Wish I could be of more help. I do have a friend that might be helpful. If I come up with more I will let you know. Alaska is a great place to visit.

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