TITLE: Everybody Needs a Rock
AUTHOR: Leslie S. Gordon, Badger Road School, Fairbanks, AK
GRADE LEVEL/SUBJECT: 2-8 science, math, language arts
TALENTS UNLIMITED LESSON
OVERVIEW/PURPOSE: It seems that all children love rocks, so this
was a perfect medium for integrating Talents across the curriculum.
I'm also always looking for realistic situations in which my
students have to measure using metrics.
OBJECTIVES: The student will be able to:
1. Use his or her Decision Making Talent and the
worksheet provided to select a rock.
2. Use his or her Communication Talent #1 to list
all the many, varied words to describe the rock.
3. Estimate the mass of all the rocks in
his or her group and rank them accordingly.
4. Use his or her Planning Talent to check the
estimations of mass using only a balance
without gram masses.
5. Find the volume of his or her rock using water
displacement
6. Use Communication Talent #5 to write a story about
his or her rock based on what he/she learned
during the activities above.
7. Use Productive Thinking Talent to list 'mvu'
strategies for grouping/classifying the rocks of
his or her group.
RESOURCES/MATERIALS:
"Everybody Needs A Rock" by Byrd Baylor
Decision Making worksheet
rocks
blind folds
balances
gram masses
graduated cylinders or jars
water
ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:
1. Read "Everybody Needs a Rock" by Byrd Baylor.
2. Ask the children to use their Decision Making
Talent and the worksheet to help them decide
what criteria they will use to help them pick their
rock.
3. Next have everyone get into groups of five or more.
Each person should observe his/her rock and use
Communication Talent #1 to record all the many,
varied words that describe his/her own rock.
4. Next put everyone's rock in the center of the table
and add at least five more rocks. Have each child
find his/her rock. Give them three minutes to feel
their rocks, then repeat the activity blindfolded.
If the children are good at this, you might want to
put all the rocks for the entire class together and
challenge each student to find his/her own.
5. Ask the students to use their Productive Thinking
Talent to find as many strategies as possible for
classifying their rocks. You might want to suggest
a particular genre such as dichotomous keys or
Venn Diagrams to give the assignment some
structure.
6. Next have students work in their groups to rank the
ten rocks in their group by estimating their mass
using feel only. After this is done, they can use
their Planning Talent to determine a plan for
checking their estimations with only one balance
per group and no gram masses. Finally, have them
check their ranking using gram masses.
7. When students have found the mass of their rocks,
challenge them to use their Productive Thinking
Talent to think of mvu strategies to find the
volume of their rocks in cubic centimeters. They
may need the hint that one gram of water equals one
cubic centimeter equals one milliliter.
TYING IT ALL TOGETHER:
Ask the students to use all the things they learned about what
makes a rock great and their Communication Talent #5 to write
their own book using many, varied complete thoughts on how to
select a rock.
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