Bringing the Outside World Inside

Since I teach rocks and minerals to all the third grade students in my school, I have the unique opportunity of enriching the students in many different ways. Every year my students take a walking/hiking field trip to the gorge. The gorge is located in our own community. The reason we take this trip is to collect and observe the different types of rocks: sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic that there are. We also use this trip as a time to study all the interesting geological features of this truly amazing place while trying to figure out the how, why, and when it was formed.

For this lesson I use the inquiry based approach where I act as a facilitator as the students explore and research the gorge. Since we only get to go on this trip once, we don't always have the time to talk about all the interesting rocks and geological features that we encounter. With a digital camera, students would take pictures of the rocks that are way too big or just impossible to bring back. They would also be able to photograph the unique geological features that we encounter that make the gorge what it is.

Upon returning to the classroom the students would be able to use the pictures to further study and discuss the types of rocks and geological features that they discovered. As a class we would combine our pictures so that we could discuss our findings. The students then would try and figure out the how, why , and when the gorge was carved out. The class as a whole would then report their findings as a group. The pictures would be used in a display as part of their presentation. The display that we would create would be taken over to our local nursing home. The students would be able to share the pictures and findings to our local community members who can't always get outside, hence bringing the outside world inside! This would be a terrific experience for both students and elders. The display and their findings would then be displayed for the school to see. The students would be introduced to the art of photography in a very friendly way. I look forward to the possibility of bringing this lesson to life.