ROCK PILE PUZZLE: TAKING OWNERSHIP STONE BY STONE

To enhance rock identification skills as well as improve technology skills of K-8 inservice and preservice teachers a method of “Research, Own, and Share” is used in Earth and Space Science Methods class. Teachers are provided with a large pile of 100+ rocks to identify prior to any formal instruction in rock identification. Groups of 3-4 students each are assigned a category of rocks/minerals (igneous intrusive, igneous extrusive, metamorphic, sedimentary, fossils and minerals) to investigate. Students use available resources including identification books and internet sources to research their assigned topic. Students then collect examples from the rock pile of representative rocks/minerals. Discussions between groups over which classification a specific example belongs to often leads to students’ “digging in and competing” to confidently conclude that an object does belong to a specific groups topic. Students are required to provide detailed descriptions of the major rock/mineral types which are representative of the topics. The descriptions include texture and composition and information on the origin of the rocks/minerals. It is required that students construct a PowerPoint presentation incorporating the required information along with detailed micro and macro images of the selected rocks/minerals. Students then rotate through each others “station” and teach each other to identify their assigned topic. The groups’ presentations are compiled and available to the students for future use in their classrooms. A group of an additional 30 rocks/minerals is used after the presentations to assess students’ rock identification skills. A formal pre- and post- survey has shown that student rock identification skills, as well as technology skills, have improved using this “Research, Own and Share” technique.