Useful Resources for Preparing to Teach Rocks and Minerals Unit

Last week Leah and I met up to work on our first lesson plan for teaching 4th graders the Rocks and Minerals kit.

I'm a big fan of video and multimedia educational resources, so I found these websites helpful and enjoyable:

The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History has a wealth of nicely designed and accessible information on rocks. Lots of this content is appealing to a wide range of ages--its museum quality! SMNH also has a function that combines their units with state standards! (I'll definitely be using this feature again!)


Bill Nye the science guy on minerals and soil: Bill's a bit fast paced, but he makes learning fun and the coolness factor is probably pretty high with 9-10 year olds. Bill also calls his viewers 'scientists' which is definitely cool! Here he is again on volcanoes and the earth's crust. And ftw with a rock video on rocks! Rocks Rock Harder (its meta and informative!)



After plenty of google searching I discovered thousands of websites providing educational material on rocks and minerals (I also read them all, so I feel pretty confident in teaching fourth graders about rocks and minerals!). There was massive variety, and naturally some sites were better than others. Here are some that I thought were pretty good:

Click-able slide show of basic rock & mineral specimens Simplicity and clean design along with good information make this site a nice resource! The pictures make it appealing for younger ages and the information is scientifically accurate and precise.

Obsidian is volcanic glass - a rock rather than a mineral, it is a mixture of cryptocrystalline grains of silica minerals in a glass-like suspension, a super-cooled liquid.

Chart detailing the rock cycle Lots of information presented graphically. This makes a nice addition to something more fun, like a rock video about the rock cycle.

You are my density: an activity for kids based on the density of rocks. Lots of other resources on the earth sciences on this site too.

Ask a geologist from the US Geological Survey!--anyone can email them a question and they'll answer it! (as long as youre not spam)...make sure to read this faq before emailing a question! (they provide concise answers to questions like what the difference is between a rock and mineral)

The BBC does a flash animation on basic rock experimentation, suitable for younger ages.

There are loads of online and analog resources for teaching students about rocks and minerals. I hope I can inspire them with all this information!

PS. Just found this link of Top Ten New Teacher Mistakes
I will working hard to avoid all of these mistakes!

And interesting ways to increase student engagement --these are from Dylan Williams in a recent BBC documentary. Excellent strategies that I will surely test out!