(RM) Rocks and Minerals Module Overview

Rocks and Minerals

Close your eyes and try to imagine our world with no rocks. Can you do it? If there were no rocks there would be no food, toothpaste, pencils, silverware, plates, makeup, statues and so much more. Soil is primarily made of minerals and rock pieces. Without soil no one could grow food. Look around your home and notice all the items made of or dependent on rocks and minerals. In the morning you turn off your alarm clock that contains quartz, you brush your teeth with toothpaste made of minerals. As you turn the light on in your bathroom notice the sheetrock making the walls that divide your home into rooms, these are made with gypsum. In your kitchen you may pick up a juice glass made of silica sand, talc, feldspar and soda ash. Your kitchen may have countertops made of granite. In this module you will learn how minerals are identified, how rocks are formed and classified. You will study the types of rocks and the rock cycle. You will compare natural products with manufactured ones and finally you will study fossils. You will learn how fossils help scientist to know and learn about the climate in the past.

Essential Questions

  • How are minerals identified?
  • How are rocks formed?
  • How are rocks classified?
  • How can a rock transform into another type of rock?

Key Terms

  1. Igneous rock - a type of rock that forms from the cooling of molten rock at or below the surface
  2. Sedimentary rock - a type of rock that forms when particles from other rocks or the remains of plants and animals are pressed and cemented together
  3. Metamorphic rock- a type of rock that forms from an existing rock that is changed by heat, pressure, or chemical reactions
  4. Rock cycle - a slow process that recycles rocks
  5. Fossil - are the preserved remains or traces of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past
  6. Lithification - the process in which sediments compact under pressure, fluids fill in between spaces of particles crystallize and create rock by cementation
  7. Sediment - bits of sand, rocks, shells, dirt
  8. Extrusive - igneous rock that formed outside of the Earth
  9. Intrusive - igneous rock that formed inside the Earth
  10. Cleavage - to break into a smooth surface
  11. Mineral - a natural inorganic substance with a definite chemical make up
  12. Granite - common intrusive igneous rock
  13. Basalt - the most common igneous rock made from lava
  14. Gritty - small hard particles of stone
  15. Crystallized - to form or cause to form crystals
  16. Molten - made liquid by great heat
  17. Atoms - the smallest particle of an element
  18. Element - one of the simple substances, such as gold iron, carbon, sulfur, oxygen and vapors
  19. Graphite - one of the softest minerals able to leave a mark
  20. Stone - chalky sedimentary rock
  21. Gypsum - sedimentary rock formed by evaporation of salt water
  22. Zinc - ore found in deposits of sedimentary volcanic rocks
  23. Ore - source of most useful metals
  24. Conglomerate - rounded rocks (pebbles, boulders) cemented together in a matrix
  25. Compaction - the process that presses sediments together
  26. Cementation - the process in which dissolved minerals crystallize and glue particles of sediment together

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