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Organizing Questions
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- Explain the difference between a mineral and a
rock.
- Describe the physical properties of minerals and how
they can be used for mineral identification.
- List the names, textures, and environments of
formation for the most common sedimentary, igneous, and
metamophic rocks.
- Use a classification key to identify this rock.
- Perform chemical and physical tests to identify this
mineral.
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Elaboration
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This indicator focuses not only on classifying and
identifying different rocks, but also on how they were
formed. Be careful for misconceptions.
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Specific Ideas
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- A substance has characteristic properties … all
of which are independent of the amount of the sample.
NSES B1a p. 154
- Sediments of sand and smaller particles (sometimes
containing the remains of organisms) are gradually buried
and are cemented together by dissolved minerals to form
solid rock again.Benchmark 4C4
- Sedimentary rock buried deep enough may be reformed
by pressure and heat, perhaps melting and recrystallizing
into different kinds of rock. These re-formed rock layers
may be forced up again to become land surface and even
mountains. Subsequently, this new rock too will erode.
Rock bears evidence of the minerals, temperatures, and
forces that created it. Benchmark 4C5
- Human activities, such as reducing the amount of
forest cover, increasing the amount and variety of
chemicals released into the atmosphere, and intensive
farming, have changed the earth's land, oceans, and
atmosphere. Some of these changes have decreased the
capacity of the environment to support some life forms.
Benchmarks 4C7
- Some changes in the solid earth can be described as
the "rock cycle". Old rocks at the earth's surface
weather, forming sediments that are buried, then
compacted, heated, and often recrystalized into new rock.
eventually, those new rocks may be brought to the
surface. NSES p. 160 D14
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Developmental & Instructional
Implications
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Most children do not associate "mineral" with "rock".
…After a particular teaching programme, minerals were
treated the same as rocks and both words were used
indiscriminutely in classifying rock samples. Driver p.
112
Children confuse the layers apparent to sedimentary rocks
with the cleavage planes often associated with metamorphic
rocks. Driver p. 113
[Very few students] associated igneous rocks with
fire or volcanoes. Driver pg. 113
The word "metamorphic" was associated by most children
with metamorphosis in animals and they linked metamorphic
rocks with butterflies and plants in general. Driver pp.
113
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Examples
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