The prehistoric topic I have been teaching at school is coming to an end and has started to cover different types of rock. Ask any child to name a few things from these prehistoric periods and no doubt they will mention, dinosaurs, volcanoes and maybe giant asteroids.
After successful teaching, they no longer associate cavemen with dinosaurs as they now know there are tens of millions of years between them.
Volcanoes have existed since the beginning of time and have always contributed to the rock cycle. We have already covered sedimentary rocks, metamorphic rocks and igneous rocks and began learning how the cycle can work in any direction.
As part of an end of unit activity we are planning a visit to Dinosaur World in Bangkok. I visited the museum a year ago and was quite impressed.
Full scale dinosaur replicas quickly build the excitement of the visitors as they are guided around the museum following arrows. The main focus is prehistoric life, but does included a section on early humans and geology.
In the numerous discovery zones, 'archaeologists' teach visitors about fossils and excavation sites. Sedimentary rock is the best when it comes to well preserved fossils. Layers of rock sandwich in the old remains instead of crushing, melting and destroying them which usually happens with metamorphic and igneous rock due to such immense heat and pressure.
Igneous rocks are formed by the cooling of molten magma on Earth's surface.
Sediment (any small particles of rock and dust) can build up in layers. Over time, this can turn into solid rock creating sedimentary rock.
Rocks that lie deep within the Earth's crust experience immense heat and pressure and as a result can transform into metamorphic rock.
Learning zones clearly label and introduce each step making it easy for kids to investigate independently.
I am sure, with some pre-loaded worksheets and clipboards, my class will really enjoy the visit. Hopefully the content that has been taught in class over the past few weeks will be recalled and applied during the visit.
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