The Rock Cycle
Learning Targets
Students will learn how the processes of melting, crystallization, weathering, deformation, and sedimentation act together to form minerals and rocks through the cycling of Earth’s materials.
Success Criteria
I can describe the various processes within the rock cycle.
I can demonstrate how the rock cycle is related to the Theory of Plate Tectonics.
What is The Rock Cycle?
Based on what you have learned about Weathering and Erosion, what do you think the Rock Cycle is?
Work with your team to come up with a definition that you think will best describe the effects that you saw. We'll come back to this definition later.
Questions to Ponder
What is the Rock Cycle?
How are rocks affected by Plate Tectonics?
As a Team...
Create a list of all of the ways that rocks can be changed.
As you work on your list, identify the forces that cause the changes.
Rock Cycle Gizmo
Play the role of a piece of rock moving through the rock cycle. Select a starting location and follow many possible paths throughout the cycle. Learn how rocks are formed, weathered, eroded, and reformed as they move from Earth's surface to locations deep within the crust.
Click Here for the Assignment
The Rock Cycle
Discover rock secrets through these activities. Create a rock collection as you learn about the three main types of rock, find out how to tell the different rock types apart, and see how rocks change from one type into another!
The following website is a self-paced series of activities to learn about the rock cycle and the different ways rocks can be transformed.
During this self-paced series of lessons you will do the following:
read and take two column notes on each of the three lessons
complete the interactive
take the self test
complete the final test
Click here to begin!
Here is another Rock Cycle Animation to help you better understand the process of changing rocks.
StarBurst Rock Cycle
The Rock Cycle is a never-ending process. Igneous rock forms from the cooling of magma or lava. Weathering breaks down rock into sediments that are compacted and cemented into sedimentary rock. Under great heat and pressure inside Earth’s crust, rocks are changed into metamorphic rock. Through the rock cycle, each type of rock can change into any of the others. In the following activity, you will observe the transformations that occur as rocks change form.
Materials
3 different colored Starburst candies,
plastic knife
piece of tin foil
piece of wax paper
book
Sedimentary Rock
Weathering
Take your three different colored Starbursts and cut them into as many small pieces as you can.
Put the pieces into a pile and draw what you observe in your sediment box on the rock cycle diagram.
Compaction
Pick up the “sediments” and gently push them together so they all form into one piece.
Cementation
Now take your “sedimentary rock” and warm it in your hands for a while.
Place the paper on top and press hard on top of the warm “sedimentary rock”.
Set the piece down and draw what you observe in the sedimentary rock box on the rock cycle diagram.
Metamorphic Rock
Heat and Pressure
Warm the “rock” in your hands again, create friction heat by rubbing quickly between hands.
Fold this “rock” in half, place paper on top, and press down on it applying greater pressure with a book on top.
Draw what you observe in the metamorphic rock box on the rock cycle diagram.
Igneous Rock
Melting
Place your “metamorphic rock” on the piece of tin foil.
Bring your tin foil and rock to Mrs. Harding to put it onto the hotplate.
Observe the “metamorphic rock” as it melts.
Draw what you observe in the magma box on your rock cycle diagram.
Set the “magma” on the table and observe it as it cools and hardens.
Draw what you observe in the igneous box on your rock cycle diagram.
The Rock ID Lab
In this lab, we will use a dichotomous key to identify a rock based on its physical properties.
What is a dichotomous key?
A Dichotomous Key is a tool that can be used to identify organisms or objects in the natural world, such as plants, animals, or rocks.
The key consists of a series of paired statements or clues about features or characteristics, providing a stepwise guide toward identifying each entity.
Rock Cycle Review
Click on the link to review the various processes that can change rocks.
Rock Cycle Quiz
CR
Answer the following question about The Rock Cycle and the Theory of Plate Tectonics.
Classifying Rocks
What characteristics do geologists use to identify rocks?
What are the three main groups of rocks?
Begin on Page 144 in the Inside Earth Text.
read page 144-147.
Get a rock kit and use page 148-162 to identify at least one of each kind of rock.
Construct a Rock Cycle Diagram using Google Drawing.
Earth's Changing Surface
The Rock Debate
What type of rock do you think Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock) would be?
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson was born on May 2, 1972, into a professional wrestling family. With World Wrestling Entertainment (W.W.E.), he entered the wrestling ring and won the W.W.E. Heavyweight title multiple times. Johnson then turned his wrestling success into a cinematic career, starring in films such as “The Mummy Returns” in 2001 and “Tooth Fairy” in 2010. Later projects included the HBO series “Ballers,” prominent roles in the “Fast & Furious” franchise and the “Jumanji” sequels, and a voice acting role as Maui in the Disney film “Moana.”
Debate
Choose a side:
If “The Rock” was one of the three actual types of rock (igneous, metamorphic, sedimentary) which one would he most likely be?
Defend your answer with facts about the different types of rocks and the rock cycle, as well as things you know about this famous actor.
