Lesson video

Hello, everyone.

How are you doing today?

Hope you're feeling really, really good.

My name is Ms. Afzal.

I'm going to be your science teacher for this lesson and I am feeling really good, that's for sure because today we are going to be looking at rocks.

I'm so interested in rocks.

I hope you are too.

Today we're going to be looking at the appearance of rocks.

What do they look like?

How are they similar?

How are they different?

What's special about their appearance?

I can't wait for us to get into this.

So if you are ready, if you've got some energy, some focus, some enthusiasm, we will begin exploring the appearance of rocks.

The outcome for today's lesson is I can compare, group and identify different rocks by observing their appearance.

Hope that sounds interesting to you.

We have a number of keywords in our lesson.

I'd like us to go through them one at a time.

First of all, I'll say it, my turn and then it will be your turn to say the word.

Are you ready?

Here's our first keyword.

Rock.

Good to hear that loud and clear.

Appearance.

Compare, identify, secondary source.

That was great.

I loved hearing those keywords.

So let's go through them one more time.

We had rock, appearance, compare, identify and secondary source.

Pause here and share with someone nearby.

Do you know any of these words?

Have you come across them before?

Which ones do you know?

Which ones have you heard of?

Thanks for sharing.

Now let's find out what these keywords mean.

Rock, this is a solid material that occurs naturally in earth.

The appearance of an object is the way something looks.

To compare is to look for similarities and differences.

To identify is to be able to name something correctly.

And information gathered using secondary sources is information that has been collected by someone else.

So these are our keywords.

Let's be on the lookout for them.

Let's listen out for them.

Let's think carefully about these keywords, which will be coming up in our lesson.

Our lesson is called "The appearance of rocks.

" It has two learning cycles.

First of all, "The appearance of rocks" and next, "Rock identification.

" I'm looking forward to that.

I think it's gonna be fun.

So shall we begin with "The appearance of rocks.

" These objects have been made from rock, chalk sticks, a roof and a kitchen worktop, all made from rock.

Rocks can look very different depending on what type of rock it is.

What do you observe about the appearance of these rocks?

Pause here and share with someone nearby.

What do you observe about the appearance of these rocks?

Thanks for sharing.

I wonder what you came up with.

Maybe you noticed they were different colors.

Maybe you notice different textures, different sizes.

Rock is found in the earth's crust and can look very different depending on which part of the earth it comes from.

And we can see some of those parts of the earth on the screen.

You see a mountain, a canyon, a rock pool, and a crag.

We can use a piece of scientific equipment to look more closely at the appearance of rock.

What might we use to look more closely?

Pause here and share with someone.

Do you know what a piece of scientific equipment to look a little more closely at the appearance of rock might be called?

Thanks for sharing.

To look more closely at pieces of rock, we can use a hand lens.

I wonder if you've ever used or seen one of these before or we could use a microscope.

I wonder if you've seen one of these in real life or maybe you've seen one in a picture or on TV.

This equipment will help us to magnify the surface of the rock and describe its appearance in more detail.

Magnify helps us to look closely.

What do you observe about this rock by looking at it with your eyes?

This rock is called pumice.

Pause here and share with someone.

What do you observe?

Thanks for sharing.

Its appearance looks bumpy and rough.

I wonder if that's what you observed.

What do you observe about this rock by looking through a hand lens or microscope?

And now we can see the magnified pumice.

Pause here and share with someone.

How does this look?

What do you observe this time?

Thanks for sharing.

The rock has lots of holes in it, which is what makes its appearance look bumpy and rough.

Maybe that's what you noticed.

Let's have a check for understanding.

Which of these pieces of equipment help you to look more closely at things that are near to you?

Is it A, a hand lens, B, binoculars, C, microscope?

So pause here and share with someone nearby which of these pieces of equipment help you to look more closely at things that are near to you?

Well done if you selected answer A, a hand lens and C, a microscope.

These can help us look more closely at things that are near to you and binoculars do the opposite.

They can help us to look at things that are far away.

Here's Alex with his rock collection and he seems very proud of them.

"These are some of the rocks in my rock collection.

" We've got rock 1, rock 2, and rock 3.

"Can we observe them "and think of some words to describe their appearance?

" Pause here and share with someone.

Observe closely and share some words to describe their appearance.

Thanks for having a go at that.

I wonder what words you came up with.

Maybe you talked, maybe had words to describe the shape.

Maybe describe this texture, smooth or maybe you said bumpy.

Maybe describe the color.

White, brown.

Alex wonders what more he'd be able to see if he used a hand lens to observe their appearance.

And these are what Alex's rocks look like when he has used a hand lens to look at their appearance more closely.

Here again, we have rock 1, rock 2 and rock 3 and the hand lens.

What else can you observe now to describe the appearance of these rocks?

Look very closely and pause here and share with someone.

What can you observe now to describe the appearance of these rocks?

Thanks for sharing.

I wonder what you came up with in rock 1.

Did you notice the shiny crystals?

In rock 2, did you notice the shiny grains?

And in rock 3, did you notice that it was powdery?

So much more that we can observe when using a hand lens.

Let's have a check for understanding.

Which of these things could you do to observe the appearance of a rock more closely?

A, I could hold the rock really close to my eye.

B, I could spend more time looking at it.

C, I could look at it through a hand lens or microscope.

Pause here and share with someone.

Which of these things could you do to observe the appearance of a rock more closely?

Well done if you selected answer C.

Indeed, you can look at it through a hand lens or a microscope, that's gonna show you so much more detail and give you a very close look at the rock.

Now, Alex has observed his rocks more closely.

He can compare them by looking at similarities and differences and sort them into groups.

He adds other rocks too.

No shortage of rocks for Alex.

Can you see why Alex has sorted them into these groups?

Pause here and share with someone.

Why has he put those three together on the left and those two on the right?

Thanks for sharing.

Perhaps you notice that the ones on the left are not white and the ones on the right are white.

That's how Alex has sorted the rocks.

Let's have a check for understanding.

Which of these statements explains how we could group rocks by their appearance.

A, group them by their differences.

B, group them into equal sized groups.

C, group them by how much they cost.

D, group them by their similarities.

Pause here and share.

Which of these statements explains how we could group rocks by their appearance?

Well done if you selected answers A and D, we could group the rocks by their differences or by their similarities.

And now it's time for your first task.

I'd like you to use a hand lens or a microscope to observe your rocks closely.

Discuss with a partner what you observed.

Compare the rocks.

What is the same and what is different about them?

Sort the rocks into groups depending on their similarities and differences.

Add some labels to your groups to show how you've sorted them by their appearance.

Pause here while you get your hand lens or microscope.

Get your rocks, get your partner and get involved with this task.

I'll see you when you're finished.

It's great to be back with you.

How did you get on with that first task of observing closely, comparing and grouping your rocks by appearance?

There are lots of ways to sort rocks by their appearance.

And you may have sorted your rocks like this.

We've got layers and stripes on the rock on the left, and no layers and stripes in the rocks on the right.

Well done for having a go at this task.

And now it's time for our next learning cycle, "Rock identification.

" We are gonna get right into these rocks.

What kinds are they?

How can we identify them?

There are lots of different rocks in the earth's crust.

Different rocks have different names.

Humans have named rocks so we can identify them correctly.

Do you know any of the names of these and other rocks?

Pause here and share with someone.

Thanks for sharing.

The first rock is chalk.

The next rock is slate.

Then we have pumice.

And finally, gneiss.

It's not in quite a funny way.

We don't pronounce the G.

It's a silent G in this rock, gneiss.

A geologist is an expert who knows a lot about rocks and we can see some geologists with some hammers out and about on a dig.

Geo means of the earth.

So a geologist is a scientist who studies the earth's solid features like rock, soil and minerals.

I wonder if that sounds like a job you might be interested in doing at some time in your life.

Geologists identify rocks by observing their appearance and comparing them to other rocks.

Let's have a check for understanding.

Who do you think is correct?

Here's Andeep.

"Different metals and plastics have different names.

"Different rocks have different names too.

" And Izzy, "Rocks don't have different names "because they all look the same.

" Pause here and share with someone, who is correct?

Andeep or Izzy?

Do rocks have different names or not?

Well done if you selected Andeep as being correct.

Indeed, rocks do have different names and they don't all look the same.

And here's Alex, "Wonder how I could identify "and name the rocks in my collection.

" Alex is always thinking about his rocks.

What would Alex need to do?

Pause here and share with someone.

How could he identify and name the rocks in his collection?

Thanks for sharing your ideas.

Here's Andeep.

"You can look closely at their appearance using a hand lens "or microscope," just like we've been doing.

And Izzy, "Then you could do some research "to compare your rocks to other rocks "and help you to identify the rocks from their appearance.

" Such fantastic ideas.

I wonder if you had some ideas like these.

We can research rocks using secondary sources.

This is information that has been collected by someone else.

Do you remember that keyword?

Secondary sources.

What secondary sources could you use to help identify rocks by their appearance?

Pause here.

Have a good think about this.

And share with someone nearby.

Thanks for sharing.

You could read a book about rocks.

You could look at rock websites on the internet.

You could visit a rock museum.

I love the sound of that.

You could ask a geologist, so many great ideas.

Perhaps you had ones like these.

Let's have a check for understanding, which of these methods would be secondary research to help you identify a mystery rock?

A, make a good guess.

B, ask a geologist.

C, read a book about rocks.

D, search the internet.

Pause here while you decide which of these methods would be secondary research to help you identify a mystery rock?

Well done if you selected answers B, C, and D.

Asking a geologist, reading a book about rocks and searching the internet are all fantastic methods to help you identify a mystery rock.

And now it's time for our next task.

We're gonna be building on what we did in Task A because you're going to now use secondary sources to identify the rocks from Task A.

Observe the appearance of your rocks closely and try to match them to the rocks on the identification sheet provided for you.

You could also go to the school library and find some rock books, use the internet or contact a geologist to help you.

Once you've identified your rocks, make name labels for them.

So pause here while you decide how you're going to go about this task of using secondary sources to identify your rocks from Task A.

Enjoy your task and I'll see you when you're finished once you've identified and labeled your rocks.

It's great to be back with you.

So how did you get on with that task of using secondary sources to identify the rocks from Task A?

You may have used the identification chart to identify and name some of these rocks.

Take a look at these ones we've got on the screen.

We've got lodestone, slate, chalk and gneiss.

You may have done something like this.

I used a book from the library and contacted a geologist to help me identify one of the rocks I couldn't find the name of.

What a great idea.

Pause here and share with someone.

Have you seen any of these rocks or other rocks in your day-to-day life?

Perhaps in the classroom or when you're walking down the street?

Have you seen any rocks such as these or other rocks?

Thanks for sharing.

Perhaps you've seen chalk in the classroom somewhere, or perhaps in a playground, or maybe you've seen slate used as roof tiles.

In our lesson, "Appearance of rocks," we've covered the following.

The appearance of rocks can be observed more closely using a hand lens or microscope.

Rocks can be compared and grouped by appearance, by looking for similarities and differences.

Different rocks have different names.

Rocks can be identified and named using simple secondary sources of information.

Well done, everyone, for joining in with this lesson.

It was so great to explore the appearance of rocks together, to get right into these rocks, finding what's the same, what's different about these rocks, looking at them closely using our special equipment such as a hand lens or a microscope.

Maybe it's the first time you've used one of those.

Maybe you've used them before.

In any case, it was great to explore so closely together and well done for using those secondary sources.

The internet, books, geologists, they're all out there to help us get more information about all these wonderful rocks that can be found on this precious earth.

I really hope you've enjoyed this lesson.

I have enjoyed teaching you, that's for sure.

And I hope you'll be back and that we can get to explore more about rocks together soon.

Until then, stay curious.