Fifth Graders Learn about Volcanic Rocks

Fifth graders enjoyed learning about rocks from guest speaker, Ms. Saebyul Choe, a museum specialist in the petrology department at the American Museum of Natural History.
 
Ms. Choe began her visit by discussing the four collections in the Petrology Collection at the museum:  gems and minerals, ores and metal deposits, meteorites, and petrology, which includes rocks such as granites and core samples.  She brought samples from the museum’s collection to show the boys examples of rocks they have been studying in science as they learn about volcanoes.  The boys were eager to touch and hold each sample.  The first rock they discussed was pumice, which has many bubbles formed from gas holes.  The boys learned that pumice is made of felsic material, consisting of minerals that are light in weight.  They conducted an experiment and found that some pumice samples floated in water, while others did not.
 
They examined scoria, lava from the most explosive volcanoes, and observed that it was denser than pumice.  The boys were particularly excited to see the spindle bomb sample.  A spindle bomb is lava or magna that rotates mid-air and transforms into a shape with tails on both ends.  They touched pahoehoe lava, from the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii, and observed the smooth, billowy surface of the basaltic lava.  With the assistance of their science teacher, Mr. Parsons, they touched Pele’s Hair, fragile volcanic fiberglass which is formed when magma bubbles pop.  The boys then learned that obsidian, volcanic glass, could be red, green, or black in color.
 
This presentation was the perfect prelude to the research projects on which the boys are about to embark.  Mr. Parsons divided the boys into groups and assigned each group a specific volcano.  The boys will research their volcanoes, create travel brochures, and, ultimately, will build a model of their volcano which will erupt near the end of this semester.  
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