An Earth Materials Webquest
For Third Grade Students
Designed by:
Erica Dunn eadunn@mcpss.com
Karen Ward kaward@mcpss.com
Mobile County Public Schools
Your next science
lesson will take you away literally.
Have you ever wondered where rocks come from or how they are
formed? Would you like to work with a
collection of rocks or start your own?
Does crushing a rock sound interesting to you? When was the last time you saw the inside of
a cave? Well, look no further than this
website, because you can earn an honorary Rockology degree from
As a member of your
graduating class, you will be engaged in the following activities: use your
muscles to crush and investigate what makes up the ingredients of mock rocks,
utilize scientific tools to scratch minerals to determine their hardness,
handle friendly chemicals to test minerals for calcite, actively search the
library and internet to locate information, and conduct various other
experiments.
In order to
graduate and receive your degree in Rock Education, your group must use the
knowledge gained from your activities to create an informative booklet to share
with the class.
You will conduct
the following experiments and visit websites to help your group gain the
information needed to create a booklet for your presentation.
1.
Assign each member a job title: Igneous geologist, Sedimentary geologist, and
Metamorphic geologist.
o
Select
your rock type below to begin your inquiry.
2.Each member will complete a
page in the booklet about their rock category.
Click
here for research study guide. Your
page should have the following:
§
A
short story
·
How
the rock is formed
·
Where
are they most likely located
·
Examples
of rocks
§
A
diagram
·
How
the rock is formed
3.All group members will work
together to complete the booklet. Assign
geologist #1 the book cover and table of contents, geologist #2 the Minerals’
page, and geologist #3 the Authors’ page. You will have to work together to develop the Minerals’
page and Authors’ page, but geologist responsible for those pages will compile
the information. Your booklet should
have the following:
§
A
book cover
·
Title
·
Picture
·
Authors
§
A
table of contents
·
List
of topics and their pages
o
Igneous
rocks
o
Sedimentary
rocks
o
Metamorphic
rocks
o
Minerals’
page
o
Authors’
page
§
Minerals’
page
o
List
of interesting minerals
o
Describe
what rocks can be identified in them
§
Authors’
page
o
List
interesting facts
o
Describe
the interaction with your group members
4. 
Use
these resources to complete your assignment:
Click here to print a hard copy
|
CATEGORY |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
|
|
Successfully uses suggested internet links to find information
and navigates within these sites easily without assistance. |
Usually able to use suggested internet links to find information
and navigates within these sites easily without assistance. |
Occasionally able to use suggested internet links to find
information and navigates within these sites easily without assistance. |
Needs assistance or supervision to use suggested internet links
and/or to navigate within these sites. |
|
|
All paragraphs include introductory sentence, explanations or
details, and concluding sentence. |
Most paragraphs include introductory sentence, explanations or
details, and concluding sentence. |
Paragraphs included related information but were typically not
constructed well. |
Paragraphing structure was not clear and sentences were not
typically related within the paragraphs. |
|
|
Diagrams and illustrations are neat, accurate and add to the
reader's understanding of the topic. |
Diagrams and illustrations are accurate and add to the reader's
understanding of the topic. |
Diagrams and illustrations are neat and accurate and sometimes
add to the reader's understanding of the topic. |
Diagrams and illustrations are not accurate OR do not add to the
reader's understanding of the topic. |
|
|
No grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors. |
Almost no grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors |
A few grammatical spelling or punctuation errors. |
Many grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors. |
These rocks are all
part of our environment. They have earned their importance in various ways.
Exploring them this year encouraged you to think about how a simple rock can be
so significant.
Click on me to receive your degree!
Having completed
this task and earning your degree, can you think of any other rocks in our
environment that can equal the distinction of these rocks? What makes your
selection equal to the ones our class has explored?
Subject
Area:
Science, Language Arts, Mathematics,
Social Studies, and Technology
Grade
Level:
Third Grade
Note
to teachers:
This unit is based on a module from the inquiry-based Foss Science Curriculum. The webquest can be completed with or without
using the Foss modules. You may want to
find exciting experiments and activities that are discovery based as an
introduction. The webquest can be used
as an extension.
Feel free to adapt this webquest to fit your
curriculum needs. If you have questions,
please contact us.
Use
the FOSS
Modules to conduct investigations that follow the scientific method:
o
Mock Rocks
o
Scratch Test
o
Calcite Quest
o
Take It for Granite
Create groups of three
students with varying ranges of abilities and gifts
Print out both study guides
for each member of a group
Groups of three students can
share time managing the computer, alternating who is in the middle
Print out one rubric per
group so they will know how they will be graded
The resources are good for
teachers as well to get background knowledge
Try to obtain other resources
as dictionaries, trade books, magazines and encyclopedias for student use
Mobile County Public School Curriculum
Standards
|
|
Science |
|
1 |
Identify questions that
can be answered through scientific investigations |
|
2 |
Use appropriate tools
and technology resources to gather, analyze, and interpret data |
|
3 |
Demonstrate the ability
to perform safe and appropriate manipulation of materials, living organisms,
scientific equipment, and technology |
|
4 |
Use appropriate skills
to design and conduct a scientific investigation. |
|
5 |
Think critically and
logically to make inferences and describe relationships between evidence and
explanations. |
|
6 |
Investigate alternative
explanations of experimental results. |
|
7 |
Use available technology
to communicate scientific procedures and to defend explanations. |