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Let’s Dig It!

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Rocks + Minerals + Hands-on = an amazing program called Dig It!

Dig It! is a program that teaches children all about rocks and minerals. You can dig through the sand and keep minerals that you find, you can identify different rocks and minerals, and learn much more! So, why don’t we get digging? Let’s dig it!

Image of mineralsDig It! is a program from a group called Science Made Fun.com, which teaches you about the types of rocks and properties for different minerals. This group travels around to many different schools, one of them is Chickering School! For two days a person from Dig It! came. Her name is Katie. She came to the different 4th grade classrooms in Chickering School. This program takes about a hour and a half. It starts with basic geology then moves on to introducing the specific rocks and minerals.
Katie showed us many things, like a model of the earth.  The model came apart and showed a cross section of the different layers of the earth. She also discussed the Rock Cycle. The Rock Cycle is the process of how rocks are formed. Katie told us about how all the earth’s continents were once connected. This large continent was called Pangaea. She taught us about the earth and how we need rocks for all different reasons. Rocks play an important role. Two reasons are: we need rocks to keep the oceans  from flowing into the center of the earth. The other reason is we need rocks for keeping the magma inside the earth. She also taught us there are three 3 types of rocks: Sedimentary, Igneous, and Metamorphic. She even brought one example of each.

All of the students’ favorite activity was to work with soil, like a geologist, and digging. The most exciting part about this program, is Image of container with soil and rocks and mineralsthat we get to dig! Each student received a cup of dirt with minerals buried with in it. On a tray, you received from Katie, the students shook the trays of dirt  and when you find a mineral you would put it on a paper towel. With the discovered minerals, on the paper towel, the students sort their minerals by color,shine (luster), hardness and magnetism. Next, the put their minerals in a bag and get to bring them home! Pretty cool!

In 4th grade, there is a teacher who teaches rock and minerals named Mrs.McLaughlin. She is the one who requested this program. Mrs.McLaughlin likes it because it gives the fourth graders a good understanding of rocks and minerals before the children come to her. She also likes it because it goes along with her rocks and mineral unit.

We know that this program not only is fun, but also it teaches children about rocks and minerals. This program is hands-on and awesome!

Reported by Olivia and Bethany