We have started in on the Geology section of our Earth Science curriculum objectives.  We have been looking at rocks this week, and trying to determine some of their characteristics.  We teachers have learned by observing and collaborating, that starting by looking at books OF rocks, or starting by identifying rocks, cuts off a lot of the learning.  Naming something is interesting (probably knowledge in Bloom’s taxonomy).  But we tend to think that we are done with something when we have named it.  What’s really important is the characteristics of the rocks and minerals, why they have those characteristics, and what they are useful for.  Also, rocks are variable, so trying to identify them from pictures in a book, with no other background knowledge, is pretty hard.

So we are seeing what their mass is.

What they scratch, and what things scratch them.

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