1. Earth Materials Investigation 1
Mock Rocks
Part 2 – Taking Rocks Apart

2. Science Jobs
Manager – this person will make sure that all members are on task
Reporter – this person will report the results of their groups work, you may need to take notes
Materials getter – this person will get materials
Materials collector – this person will return materials

3. Investigation 1, Part 1 Review
Rocks have many properties, including shape, size, color, and texture
Geologists use rock properties to help identify different rocks
Some dimensions of rocks can be measured and compared

4. What We Will Learn The difference between rocks and minerals
Rocks are made up of different ingredients, minerals of only one.
How the minerals in a rock can be separated
Some minerals can be separated and identified by breaking the rock apart.
Some rock materials separate and settle when mixed with water.
Some minerals dissolve when mixed with water.

5. What We Will Do
Separate and identify as many of the ingredients of the mock rocks as we can
Geologists use special tools such as picks to take rocks apart and observe what they are made of.
We will use a nail for a “pick” to break the rocks apart and separate the different ingredients into piles.
After sorting the piles we will record our observations on page 4 of our Earth Materials Booklet.

6. Materials Material Getters will get the trays with 4 paper plates
4 mock rocks
4 nails
4 hand lenses
4 plastic cups

7. Earth Materials Booklet Mock Rocks – Page 4
After taking your rock apart write your observations on the top of page 4
Recorders be ready to share some of your group’s observations

8. Rock A rock is an earth material made up of more than 1 ingredient.
Can you identify the ingredients that make up your mock rock?
If you had a rock made up of other ingredients would it be the same as your mock rock?
Imagine you put the ingredients all back together. How would this new rock be the same and different?

9. Minerals Look closely at the red gravel.
If we used hammers and broke down the red gravel into smaller pieces, it would still be red gravel.
So red gravel is not a rock; it is made up of only one ingredient.
When an ingredient cannot be broken down into other ingredients it is call a mineral.

10. Earth Materials Booklet Mock Rocks – Page 4
List the mock rock minerals you have found on the bottom of page 4.
Reporters, what ingredients has your group listed?
Put all of your mineral pieces in your cup.
Material Collectors please take the cups to the materials station

11. Separation
Talk in your group and decide whether or not we can further separate the gray material that is left on your plates. If yes, how could we do it?
Reporters, share your group’s ideas.
We are going to see if we add water to the gray material if we can further separate it.

12. Further Separation Materials Getters come and get your materials
4 vials
2 syringes
1 cup water
labels

13. Separation Procedure Label your vial with your name
Fold your paper plate and carefully pour the gray materials into your vial so it is one-third full. Look at my vial to see how full that is.
Measure 25 ml of water in the syringe. Do not leave the syringe in the cup of water.
Add the water to the vial.
Snap on the lid and hold the vial tightly with your thumb on the lid.
Shake the vial for a few minutes.

14. Earth Materials Booklet Mock Rocks – Page 5
Observe the contents and draw a picture in the first vial outline on page 5 of the notebook.
Be sure to show colors, any bubbles, any materials that are floating or settled.
Record your observation in words next to your drawing.

15. Discuss Observations
How has adding water helped to separate the rock ingredients?
What do you notice about the way the materials are beginning to settle?
What do you think will happen if the vials settle overnight?
Do you think that there is anything dissolved in the water? How will you know?
What will you observe if an ingredient dissolves? What will you observe if an ingredient doesn’t dissolve?

16. What We Learned The difference between rocks and minerals
Rocks are made up of different ingredients, minerals of only one.
How the minerals in a rock can be separated
Some minerals can be separated and identified by breaking the rock apart.
Some rock materials separate and settle when mixed with water.
Some minerals dissolve when mixed with water.

17. What We Learned
A rock is an earth material made up of different ingredients called minerals.
A mineral is an ingredient of rocks that cannot be broken down any further. We do not mean that it can’t be hit with a hammer and broken into smaller piece. We mean that no matter how many pieces you break it into, it is still the same material.