Room 2- Exploring Mountains to Sand

Fall- Focus on Rocks and Minerals

• Room 2 began the year with an exciting Geology Field Trip to Tuolumne Meadows in September which included a Yosemite Geologic History walk to Parsons Lodge. In the above photos students are standing on the glacial polish of Lembert Dome
• Throughout the fall we took walking field trips within Yosemite Valley to collect rock samples. We then studied the methods of rock and mineral identification, and used these methods to identify rocks. Finally we created a Rock Museum, where each student chose one Yosemite rock sample to describe and display.
• Geologic Time Activity (with Room 1) - Students visually represented geologic time from the formation of the earth (5 billion years ago) to today using the length of the Multipurpose room. Students worked together to add significant geologic events to the timeline.
• We collaborated with our partners at NatureBridge to incorporate the Geologic History of Yosemite picture cards created by Greg Stock to show the formation of Yosemite Valley. We combined this with a mutli-disciplinary approach to teaching u-shaped vs. v-shaped valley, incorporation sculpture, watercolor painting and mixed media art.
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Spring- Focus on "Pebbles, Sand and Silt" - focus question: How do the great rocks of Yosemite weather and get carried away?

We continued our study of rocks by looking at more properties of rocks- specifically size, color, texture and hardness. (See photos below)

More walking field trips and visits to the Visitors Center aided our investigations into the following concepts:

• Rocks are the solid material of Earth.
• Rocks are composed of minerals.
• Rock sizes include clay, silt, sand, gravel, pebbles, cobbles, and boulders.
• Weathering, caused by wind or water, causes larger rocks to break into small rocks.
• Some Earth events happen rapidly; others occur slowly over a very long period of time.
• Soils can be described by their properties (color, texture, ability to support plant growth).
• Soil is made partly from weathered rock and partly from organic material. Soils vary by location.
• Natural sources of water include streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, marshes, and the ocean. Sources of water can be fresh or salt water.

Our final project for the year consisted of collecting three soil samples from different areas of Yosemite Valley. To investigate the composition of the soil we synthesized all the information we have learned about rock and soil throughout the year. We made predictions about the soil composition based on the location of the soil and then tested our predictions by using screens, separating samples in vials of water, looking at samples under the microscope and comparing the samples by hand.