The Ground We Walk On
Margaret M. Loos
Your feedback is important to us!
After viewing our curriculum units, please take a few minutes to help us understand how the units, which were created by public school teachers, may be useful to others.
Give Feedback
FORBES BLUFF SITE 3
:
BEDROCK AND THE ROCK CYCLE
If we enter Fort Hale Park and walk back toward Lighthouse Point a short distance we will find a rock lined shore under cliffs interrupted by some lower ground. If it has rained recently students will see water flowing from cracks in the rocks. They should be encouraged to make a list of their observations, for instance, these rocks have cracks which appear in regular patterns, and they appear to break off the cliffs from these junctures. The piles of rock which match the cliff rocks and lie at the base contrast their sharp edges with the rounded smooth surfaces of the rocks that underlie them, The rocks display colors and textures. Students may well have been satisfied with the processes responsible for the changing of beaches and stream beds and other coastal effects which we have studied so far. However, we would hope that they would be curious as to how these cliffs or the masses of granite on the breakwater or even those greatest rock formations on the horizon, East and West Rock ridge were deposited. At first, eighth graders when confronted with rocks will say, “They’re only rocks.”, but when asked to look more carefully they can differentiate between them in terms of size, shape, color, smoothness, sharp edges, etc. The more they look, the more they see. Five minutes of silent study of a rock may allow them to observe that the particles in the rock may be all the same size or vary in size, color, and crystal formation. This is a good time for students to learn the definition of a rock as “
an aggregate of minerals
which forms an integral part of the earth
”
8
. The study of rocks is
petrology
and the name Peter means “rock”.