From Bored Walker to Young Geologist

Activities

The next time you go for a walk, take a closer look at some of the things that we take for granted: like rocks. Collecting or searching for rocks is definitely more fun when you know a little about the rocks you find.

You don't need to be a Geologist to enjoy a good rock hunt!

You can bring the rock home with you and look it up on the internet or go the library to borrow a fossil/rock field guide. It is fun to look through the internet/books together to identify the rocks you found.

I was trying to get my daughter interested in looking at and identifying some basic rocks on our last walk. Needless to say, she didn't care much at first. However, I realized she didn't care because she didn't know how the rock was made. Once I explained to her how certain types of rocks were made, she was excited to look for and find a different rock, bring it back to me and then have me tell her how each rock was made. Before I knew it, she was able to search for certain types of rocks.

The way I explained it to her was:

First of all, there are two basic types of rocks in the world:

Fossil Rocks and Non-Fossil Rocks.

Fossils are animals or bugs that got stuck in mud a long time ago and left an imprint in it, just like the hand print that you made for mom. A lot of the fossils around here are from the sea because, a long time ago, this was all part of the ocean. Most of the fossils you will find are coral, clams, snails, worms and sea lilies (of course they have some other name--but these are more or less what they really are)

We looked for some fossils in the creek, she found them and then I gave a story about how it was made or what the clam or bug ate.

After a little while of searching, she started to find some other more colorful rocks and then I explained the 3 basic categories:

• Igneous
• Sedimentary
• Metamorphic

Igneous rocks come from lava. Flint is a a type of Igneous rock; the American Indians used it to make knives and arrows because it can be chipped like glass to make sharp edges.

Sedimentary rocks come from rivers, lakes, ponds or mud. They are made just like lasagna is made--you lay down layers and each layer can have something different.

Metamorphic rock are rocks that changed from one kind to another. The same way a diamond started out from a piece of coal. To make a diamond out of coal, you would have to press it for a very long time, very, very hard.

All in all, our trip was about 3 hours and she had a lot of fun looking for different rocks. Furthermore, little did she realize, she was learning a lot about geology, why things are the way they are and sharpening her thinking skills.

Helpful Links

The U.S. Geological Survey's Schoolyard Geology