In this Earth Science Lab, I have my students design an experiment that determines which sediment type is the most porous and which sediment type is the most permeable. This is a common design that my students come up with. There are others, but this one works well. For the lab, go to https://earthscience.xyz/content/porosity-and-permeability-lab.

In this Earth Science lab, students will design an experiment to answer the following question. Will rock weather faster or slower if it has more surface area exposed? Students will use Alka-Seltzer as their rocks. They will have to come up with a control and two other variables, They will need to list their hypothesis, step by step procedures, observations, and create a statement of conclusion. When they are finished they will understand the relationship between surface area and rate of weathering.

Students will research 8 common metamorphic rocks. Marble, quartzite, hornfels, slate, phyllite, schist, gneiss, and amphibolite. Students will have a better understanding of what foliated vs. non-foliated rocks look like. They will understand what a parent rock is and review some of their mineral knowledge by researching what some of the most dominant minerals are in these particular metamorphic rocks. Finally, when they are done they will discuss with their groups some higher-order thinking questions that will drive the class discussion when the assignment is completed.

In this activity students are going to find a small rock, decide what rock type it is, weight it, place it in a tumbler and then over a two week period observe it to see how much mass a rock can lose if it went through a 24 hour a day process of bouncing around other rocks. Students will get a first-hand look at the power behind water and abrasion. Students will make a statement of conclusion and calculate the rate of mass decrease.

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In this activity, students will hone their observation, inference, and making conclusions skill by trying their best to use a dichotomous classification key to determine the name of their rocks. This Earth Science lab also contains a dichotomous key used for teaching students how sedimentary rocks are classified.

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Other rock and mineral identification labs can be found at:

In this lab, students will identify up to 6 igneous rocks. They will practice using a dichotomous key in order to ID their rocks. Students will have a better understanding of igneous rock texture, composition, and color. There are four questions at the end of the lab that will review crystallization, intrusive and extrusive rocks. I give this assignment after our study on igneous rocks, so this is a great assessment activity as well. I have also included my own thoughts and instructions to help you implement this activity in your classroom.

This is an assignment I give my students before they actually take their mineral identification test. In this activity, the minerals have already gone through the individual characteristics tests such as luster, hardness, color, streak, and other mineral properties. This assignment is to give students practice using a dichotomous key that can help them identify minerals. This assignment also contains vocabulary words commonly used when identifying minerals.

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In this 4 day lab, students will become very familiar with the procedures involved in identifying minerals.

Day 1: Students will learn what streak, cleavage, and luster are.

This animated video describes the formation of minerals particularly the mineral quartz and how that quartz becomes sand.  The video will discuss the concepts of mineral formation, sand dune formation, river deposition, and erosion.

In this Earth Science Lab, students will design and experiment that will help them determine the densities of different rocks and minerals. This is a follow up lab to the Phet Density Lab that they would have already completed in my class. You can find the Phet Density Lab in the Educational Resource store. This Rock Density lab however can still be given if you have already discussed how to go about finding mass, volume and densities of rocks and minerals.

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