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Grade Levels: K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Lesson Submitted by: Tammy Payton tpayton@dmrtc.net
Objective
Students will have an understanding of how erosion happens and that this is part of the rock cycle.
Materials Needed:
toothpicks
paper plates
Activity Description:
Have the students measure, stir, and bake the Metamorphic Cookie recipe. Explain to the students that the ingredients they are adding represent sediments of material. As you add each ingredient to the mixture, they are becoming compacted together. After all of the ingredients are added, you have something similar to a sedimentary rock formation. When you form the small, teaspoon size drops of dough on the cookie sheet, you have compacted the ingredients together to form a solid material.
You can discuss how this is similar to conglomerate rock. Conglomerate rocks are sedimentary rocks. They are made up of large sediments like sand and pebbles. The sediment is so large that pressure alone cannot hold the rock together, but are cemented together with dissolved minerals. The chips and nuts can represent the large sediments and the dough represents the dissolved minerals that cement the rock.
Next have the students predict what will happen to this dough when heat is added to this mixture. Tell the students that this is how sedimentary rock is changed, or morphed, into another kind of rock. Metamorphic rocks were once igneous or sedimentary. The rocks are under tons and tons of pressure, which fosters heat build up, and causes them to change. Although we are not adding pressure to the cookies, we are emulating the heat that causes the rocks to change with the oven.
Once the cookies are out of the oven, let the students mine for minerals. Give each student one cookie on a paper plate and a toothpick. Have students compare the size of their cookies with other students, then weigh the cookies to see if they all weigh the same. Query your students why they think all of the rocks/cookies do not weigh the same. Some cookies will weigh less than others, because some may have fewer "minerals" in their rock.
Next have the children mine for minerals by taking their toothpicks and excavating their rock. Have them sort the minerals they have and discuss whether or not the minerals changed their appearance since the heat was applied.
Have the students compare the number of minerals found in their rock to the rocks of the other students.
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