Middle School Inquiry Lab on the Rock Cycle
In this lab students will be able to identify how rocks are classified and the processes that move them through the rock cycle.
Each inquiry lab will contain an essential question that will drive the lesson and make students think. For this lesson, the essential question is:
- What processes cause rocks to change from one type to another?
BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND MATERIALS LIST:
Students will begin the lab by reading the essential question and background information. This can be done individually, as lab groups, or as a whole class. If you consider lab groups, you also might include some type of whole class formative checks before digging into the lab.
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Materials List:
- Starburst candies (three different colors per group)
- scissors
- wax paper
- foil
- hot plate (use caution and safety equipment)
- blow dryer
- book
PROCEDURE:
This inquiry lab contains multiple parts students will need to complete that takes them through each stage of the rock cycle. In the first part of the lab, students will take the pieces of Starburst and cut them up into small pieces representing sediments that will eventually bind together to create sedimentary rocks.
In the second part, students take all cut up pieces in their hands and press them together so that they stick. This pressure and the multiple pieces together will represent that actions it takes to create a sedimentary rock.
The third part involves using the hairdryer, wax paper, and a book. The heat and pressure simulated will show students how rocks become metamorphic.
In the last part, using the hot plate, students will take the metamorphic rock creation and place it on foil on top of the hot plate. Students will observe that the melting process will turn the rock into a liquid state, which represents the magma that will eventually cool and become an igneous rock once again.
Finally, students will use a word bank and label arrows for what is happening to transform the rocks from one form to another.
CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING:
At this point in the lab, students will be checked for understanding by answering questions about their findings. Here are a few that come with the lab:
- What creates sediments?
- What would happen to the rock if it was exposed to the surface again?
CONCLUSION
Students will go back to the essential question and write a CER (Claim, Evidence, Reasoning) to conclude the lab. Once completed, students will reflect back on their learning by answering the following questions:
- What processes in nature can change a rock’s appearance but leave it the same type of rock? Explain.
- If the rock cycle never stops, what will eventually be true of all rocks on Earth?
MODIFIED AND INDEPENDENT INQUIRY VERSIONS
All of the Kesler Science inquiry labs come with three different modification levels. Each lab is differentiated using the icons below.
STANDARDS ALIGNMENT
NGSS: MS-ESS2-1 – Develop a model to describe the cycling of Earth’s materials and the flow of energy that drives this process.
