This unit entitled Rocks is designed for 3rd grade.

The unit will integrate many academic disciplines while teaching students about rocks with specifics such as the properties of rocks and minerals, different types of rock, how rocks are formed, and different objects that are made from rocks and minerals. Students will do a variety of activities to enhance their learning. First the students will explore an introduction to the concept of rocks and minerals. Then students will learn the process of how rocks are formed into the three different rock types through an inquiry. Then students will explore the properties of rocks and minerals through content and inquiries. Finally, the students will learn how rocks and minerals are found in the environment all around us. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education Standards, the students will be demonstrating how heating and cooling may cause changes in the properties of materials including phase changes (3.2.3.A3), using basic reactions to demonstrate observable changes in properties of matter (3.2.3.A4), describing basic landform, identifying layers of the earth, and recognizing that the surface of the earth changes due to slow processes and rapid processes (3.3.1.A1), representing and interpreting data using tally charts, tables, pictographs, line plots, and bar graphs (CC.2.4.3.A.4), identifying the physical properties of minerals and deomstrate how minerals can be tested for these different physical properties (3.3.3.A2), solving problems involving measurement and estimation of temperate, liquid, volume, mass, and length (CC.2.4.3.A.1), differentiating between properties of objects such as size, shape, and weight and properties of materials that make up the objects such as color, texture, and hardness (3.2.3.A1) When the unit is complete, the students will be able to list properties used to identify rocks, be able to identify different kinds of rocks based on their properties, give examples of the three basic rock forms, know how each rock form is created, and where you can find rocks and minerals in everyday objects. This content is key in a student's ability to understanding, explore, and explain the natural world around them.