Amy Stewart
Rationale of Rock Learning Center
March 13, 2002
Everybody Needs a Rock is one of my big ideas in my science learning center. This piece of literature is great in that it encourages students to look at nature on a personal level. It challenges them to investigate rocks wholeheartedly. This activity is rooted in a topic for which children have prior knowledge, and then with this story added, students begin to explore other properties of rocks they may not have considered. This learning center is hands-on, students are required to use their senses to explore this part of nature. It also brings science to a personal level by being student-centered. Students not only explore the questions we chose, but they also pose and begin to answer their own questions, by using higher order thinking skills.
The
second part of our big idea comes from the book, If You Find A Rock. Rocks are everywhere whether we take notice
of them or not. Some are beautiful,
useful, expensive, historic, or meaningful in some other way. They are a very interesting part of nature
and history that are at the student’s fingertips. We feel this activity is very important because there is so much
that can be explored about rocks; they are part of our everyday lives, and
because many of the processes students use to question and explore rocks help
students to grow as learners.
Students will begin by exploring a variety of characteristics of rocks. It is important for them to use science vocabulary to develop classifications of rocks. They will compare and contrast the properties of rocks to discover the similarities and differences. This activity will include using various tools to measure properties and observe qualities. The students will record their explorations and any questions they plan to research and how they will go about it. Students will make inferences about the various uses of rocks and where they may be found. And lastly, the activity would go full circle, when children use all they have learned and experienced to relate the rocks in the activity to those in If You Find a Rock. Here they will not only compare rocks in the collection to those described in the story, but possibly add one of their categories to the story. And, to follow-up on Everybody Needs A Rock, ask students to describe a rock they would choose as their special rock and to write an explanation of why. Through the different writings in their journals, it will become apparent if students have not only learned the science content, but if it has been a successful experience of rocks on a personal and very new level.
Bibliography
Byrd, Baylor. Everybody Needs A Rock Simon & Schuster, 1985.
Christian, Peggy. If You Find A Rock. Harcourt, 1999.