I bet you didn’t know there was a scale to measure the hardness of minerals; it’s called the Mohs scale. This week our budding Geologists performed tests on the minerals to determine their hardness. The mother in me was a little nervous about this. The students were going to be using sharp nails and pennies to scratch the minerals and rate their hardness. I was concerned that students might try to scratch each other with the nails or just hurt themselves when using them. I was also concerned about pennies going in mouths, but then again I am the mother of a 4 yr. old. Sarah and I made it a point to go over our safety rules and address the proper and safe use of the nails and pennies.
Agai We broke the class up into 4 groups and had them work with 6 minerals at a time. This part of the lesson flowed very smoothly since there weren’t any station changes and they were only doing one test. We addressed the engineering and technology connection, which is, to identify materials used to accomplish a design task based on a specific property, e.g., strength, hardness, and flexibility; by having the students use nails to test for hardness.
We needed to address the technology connection and have the students do a writing assignment, so to accomplish both of the tasks we showed the class a PowerPoint on what a Geologist does. We didn’t want them to think the only job a Geologist had was to identify rocks and minerals. After they watched and listened to the PowerPoint we asked them to write a paragraph about a day in the life of a Geologist or some aspect of a Geologist’s job. It was interesting to see the work of the students. Some students were really excited about the work a Geologist does and quickly wrote a paragraph about it. Some students needed more prompting and help with ideas. At the end we had lots of students who wanted to share what they wrote.
I thinI think we had another successful lesson and next week the students will be finishing their field guides. They have two tests left. It will also be our last lesson. This has been a great learning experience for me and I hope the students have learned a lot about rocks and minerals from us.
Hi Arlette, that was a great idea to go over the safety rules with the students in detail before beginning this lesson because it sounds like it could definitely be potentially dangerous! Scratching minerals with nails... I can see how the mother in you came out during this lesson haha. I think it's great that you used a powerpoint to explain what geologists do, and I'm sure the students enjoyed it very much. Great job implementing technology into your lesson!
ReplyDeleteScratching minerals with "nails" - this happens to be the metal nail that we can hammer into a wall as opposed to finger nail. Of course, both can be potentially dangerous from a mother's perspective.
ReplyDeleteArlette,
ReplyDeleteI did not know that there was a scale to measure mineral hardness! Learn something new everyday. I share your exact same fears about letting a classroom full of fourth graders lose with nails. A slip of the hand could injury themselves or others. That is why safety directions are so important! Nice use of a power point to connect the children with technology.