Palo Alto Unified School District—Science On-Line Guide for
Teachers
Earth Materials
3rd Grade Earth Science Unit |
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General Information
The Earth materials unit is a Full Option Science System (FOSS)
kit created by the
Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California, Berkeley. It is published by Britannica.
In this unit students are expected to:
- Develop an interest and wonder about earth materials.
- Gain experiences with rocks and minerals.
- Understand the process of taking apart and putting together to find out about materials.
- Use measuring tools to gather data about rocks.
- Collect and organize data about rocks.
- Observe, describe, and record properties of minerals.
- Seriate minerals on the basis of one property.
- Investigate the effect of vinegar on a particular mineral, calcite.
- Use evaporation to investigate rock composition.
- Learn that rocks are mixtures of minerals and that minerals cannot be physically separated into other materials.
- Compare their activities to the work of a field geologist.
- Acquire the vocabulary used in earth science.
- Exercise language and math skills in the context of earth science.
- Gain experiences that will contribute to their understanding of several pervasive themes that relate one scientific idea to another: PATTERN, STRUCTURE, INTERACTION, and CHANGE.
Core Concepts
- The solid material of the earth's crust is made of rock.
- Rocks are made of minerals.
- Minerals are made of one material.
- Some mineral properties are color, hardness and luster.
- Properties of minerals are used to find out which minerals make up a rock.
- Calcite is a mineral which bubbles when placed in an acid such as vinegar.
- Granite is a rock made of the minerals mica, feldspar, quartz, and hornblende.
Misconceptions
