Rock on! - Cyber Hunt Teacher's Guide - quiz on rocks and minerals - Brief Article

They are the building blocks of our planet, but we rarely think about the rooks and minerals that we see every day. Visit www.scholastic.com/instructor to start your Web hunt for the facts. Write your answers below or on a separate sheet of paper.

1. The Earth is made of _____.

http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/docs/usgsnps/pltec/pltec1.html

2. The three basic types of rocks that exist on the Earth are _____, _____, and _____.

http://interactive2.usgs.gov/learningweb/explorer/topic_rocks.htm

3. Igneous rock forms when _____.

www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/msese/earthsysflr/rock.html

4. Three of the seven properties used to identify minerals are _____, _____, and _____.

www.idahoptv.org/dialogue4kids/season3/rocks/facts.html#mineral

5. Limestone contains _____, which comes from _____.

http://www.fi.edu/fellows/payton/rocks/expert/index.html

6. The hardest stone in the world is _____. It is used _____ % of the time for _____, and _____ % of the time for _____.

http://tqjunior.advanced.org/5008/

7. A geode is a _____.

www.desertusa.com/magjan98/jan_pap/du_rock_geode.html

8. Gems are a rare subgroup of _____.

http://mineral.galleries.com/minerals/gemstone/class.htm

9. How can there be a rock that floats? Bonus: What are three ways this rock could be formed?

http://www.childrensmuseum.org/geomysteries/floatingrock/a1.html

Lead your students on a fact-finding mission across the Web with Instructor's online rocks, gems, and minerals CyberHunt. Suitable for middle and upper graders, the CyberHunt is a great individual or group activity. Begin by copying the CyberHunt Kids' Reproducible, opposite page, for each of your students. Then direct them to www.scholastic.com/instructor to start their search.

Answers:

1. Three layers of rock: the crust, the mantle, and the core.

2. Igneous rocks, sedimentary rocks, and metamorphic rocks.

3. Magma (hot liquid made of minerals) cools and makes crystals.

4. Three of the following: luster, hardness, color, streak, cleavage, crystal shape, and magnetism.

5. Mineral calcite, which comes from the beds of evaporated seas and lakes, and sea-animal shells.

6. Diamond, used 20% of the time for jewelry and 80% of the time for industry, such as phonograph needles and polishing and cutting tools.

7. Sphere-shaped rock containing a hollow cavity lined with crystals.

8. Minerals.

9. Air bubbles get trapped in the rock, working like air in a balloon. Floating rock can form by pebbles becoming cemented together, by being heated deep in the earth, or by getting expelled from a volcano.

CYBERHUNT SAFETY:

All of the Web sites contained in the CyberHunt have been reviewed by Instructor staff. At press time, all links are safe and consist of educational material. However, we are unable to control transfers or purchases of URLs after publication. We strongly urge teachers to review all Web sites before sharing them with students.

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