Rocks and minerals science project

OK fourth graders! I have fixed the science project and made it more user friendly. I have takens some from the old assignment and put it on the new one. Your jobs are the same, but your assignment is a little easier.

Several local geologists found out that we are studying Our Changing Earth and Rocks and Minerals and have asked for our help. They would like us to help them by becoming rocks and minerals detectives. Our job will be to collect clues about rocks and minerals that are used in our area and to share our findings with the community in the form of a multimedia presentation
Your group will use the Internet and other resources to collect clues about rocks and minerals and how they are used. You will gather multimedia information to share with the other members of your group. Your group will have a short debriefing session when you are finished with your search. As a group, you will be looking for the answers to these questions:
• What are minerals?
• What are the physical characteristics of your assigned mineral?
• Where is your assigned mineral found as a natural resource?
• How is your assigned mineral used once it is mined from the earth?
• What are the three different types of rocks and how are they formed?
• What type of rock is your assigned mineral associated with?
Use powerpoint to create a slide show with your information. You must include at least five slides, with pictures on each slide.
The Process

1. You will be assigned to groups of three. Each group member will hold one of these positions:
* Mineral Detective - This person will find out what a mineral is and the specific characteristics of your assigned mineral.
* Locator Detective - This person will find out what your assigned mineral is found in nature and how your assigned mineral is used once it is mined from the earth.
* Rock Detective - This person will find out what the three different types of rocks are and how they are formed.

2. Once you've decided who will complete each job, you will begin your detective work using the Internet and the library. You will need to go to the resource and read through the information presented, thinking about what you are reading. Make sure you think about your goals as a detective and what you need to find out about rocks and minerals.


3. You will need to save any information you want to use later in your folder on the computer. Remember to copy and paste text into a word processor if you would like to use it as a reference. And if you find an interesting picture, right click on the picture and "Save image as" into your folder on the computer. You may want to save the pictures on ONE person’s log in, so you have them all in one folder to do your presentation.
4. Use the images and the facts to create a slide show.
5. When your group has finished your slideshow, find someone you can present it to. Practice giving your presentation several times. Take suggestions from your practice partners and edit your slideshow as needed.

6. Finally, you will present the slideshow of your detective work to the rest of the class.
Resources

http://askkids.com

http://rocksforkids.com

http://yahooligans.com

http://blackboard.wcpss.net/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_9352_1


http://sites.google.com/a/winfield34.org/student-web-resources/Home/4th-grade/rocks-and-minerals

math

In math we are doing multiplication and divison. We have been doing multiplication and divison since the first day of school we also do it for homework. We also learn some stratagies of multiplication. I have fun doing multiplication and divison. In some of our math tic-tac-toe is some multiplication. Like we do multipication.com on the computer we get to games that invole multipcation. We do math in the morning after morning meeting. We are also taking our math test today. We are about done with multiplcation and divison.



Priscilla

science

In science we are learning about different types of rocks and minerals and how to find what kind of mineral it is. Like quartz was the hardest one that we had so we did a bunch of test on all of the minerals then we got our answer. I got to say Mrs.Bonham makes science alot of fun! Mrs.Bonham does science for fun friday we made oobleck "fun and very messy" and now we are are doing a project in the computer lab wich we have not really gotten started on yet "well at least my group hasn't "




Taylor

Change of plans....

As the class started the rocks and minerals project, we realized that we weren't quite ready to do that type of webquest yet... We may try that one another time. Thanks for visiting the blog! Stay posted for student authors of the day!