Overview -- Grades 6-8 -- Beyond Stone Walls - Curricula
Geology Unit Overview: Change and Interconnectedness
Essential Questions:
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Why does Mansfield look the way it does?
What are the underlying forces that cause changes to the earth?
How are rocks and minerals used in our every day lives?
Excite Activity: Why does Mansfield look the way it does?
What are the underlying forces that cause changes to the earth?
Students observe and ask questions about
the stone walls on the MMS school
grounds.
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Students take notebooks outside to draw, make observations and ask
questions about the stone walls on campus.
Where did stonewalls come from? How did the stones get here? Are there
stonewalls in every town in the United States?
Brainstorm questions with students on the board.
When you observe stonewalls what are some of the things that you should be paying
close attention to?
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Pay attention to color, texture and size of rocks.
Shape & size of stonewalls.
How rocks are stacked in stonewalls.
Things living in and around stone walls.
What’s growing on the rocks?
How heavy rocks and walls are.
Geometry of placing stones.
Markings on the stones.
Part 1: Plate Tectonics
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Teacher and students discuss and take notes on:
o Continental drift
o Convection currents (crust, mantle and core)
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Plate boundaries
Earthquakes and volcanoes
Students participate in Graham Cracker Plate movement lab.
Part 2: Weathering and Erosion
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Teacher and students discuss and take notes on
Weathering – The process of how rocks get broken down.
Read Text Pages 114 –118 and discuss weathering. Take brief notes on weathering. Be
sure to describe chemical and mechanical weathering.
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Erosion – The movement of the broken down rocks.
Read text pages 133-146 and discuss the different types of erosion. Take brief notes on
the types of erosion and erosion process. Ask how rocks and plants affect erosion.
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Students create models to show the different types of weathering and erosion
processes. Model should include a written paragraph that discusses the process
they have simulated.
Part 3: Glaciers
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Teacher and students discuss and read about glaciers in Dynamic Earth text
(pages 147-150)
Discuss how Mansfield was covered by Glaciers in the past
Demonstration on how the bottom of glacier becomes “pliable” at the bottom due
to pressure from weight in top with ice and wire rack (Van Cleave, Earth Science
for Every Kid, page 82)
Students participate in Glacier experiment with ice cubes, clay covered cardboard
and soil to show how earth materials are moved and deposited by glaciers-from
Dynamic Earth text, page 150.
Part 4: Stone Walls – Where did they
come from?
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Review students’ knowledge of glaciers. Ask students what the New England
landscape looked like after the glaciers were gone.
Create a pictorial timeline.
Discuss the processes that have transformed the landscape of New England. Glaciers
Come à Glaciers Leave Rock Deposits à Trees & Soil Develop à Colonists Cut Down
Trees à Soil Erodes à Frost Forces Up Rocks à Rocks Pulled From Farm Fields à Stone
Walls Built
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Use Diagram on page 63 of Stone Wall Secrets Teacher Book to discuss Frost
Heaves.
Part 5: Rocks & Minerals
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Discuss the difference between rocks and minerals.
Make Rock & Mineral Cookies.
Read about the Rock Cycle Pages 93 – 95 of text. (Review Plate Tectonics,
Weathering, and Glaciers.)
View Characteristics of Rocks & Minerals. Distribute to each student, The
characteristics of Rocks Sheet. Use this sheet along with magnifying glasses to
view rock samples.
Students Objectives for this Activity:
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To observe different characteristics of rocks.
To observe the differences between rocks and minerals.
To experience the process of rock identification.
Homework – Uses Of minerals
Identify everyday items at home made of rocks and minerals.
Try to identify at least 15 things.