Rocks and Minerals Unit Igneous Sedimentary and Metamorphic Rock Cycle

This 3-week blended learning unit on Rocks and Minerals is a series of lessons help students to explore and make sense of minerals, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks, and the rock cycle. This unit will help your students to understand that rocks are composed of minerals and be able to define what a rock is and what a rock is not, differentiate between the three main types of rocks, and explain how each type of rock is created and changed by the Earth by the recycling of Earth materials.

What is a blended learning unit? Blended learning combines online educational materials and opportunities with physical place-based classroom methods. This resource is the digital 'backbone' component of the unit that is editable and flexible for incorporating hands-on activities and labs and for varying the delivery of lessons to accommodate whole-class discussion, or small group, partner, or individual work.

But PLEASE NOTE! This is NOT a "webquest"! These lessons are written to be a sequential journey through the content and the teacher will still be facilitating the lessons. Students are not left to complete these lessons on their own. The teacher can use best practice pedagogy to have students interacting in whole-class discussions and small group work throughout the unit!

In this unit, students will:

• keep their own 'virtual rock collection' that they will organize and label as they learn about their rocks
• discover the properties of minerals and how minerals are identified by their properties
• engage in higher-level thinking about what a rock is and what a rock is not
• interact with free online interactives
• complete readings and graphic organizers
• play a unique rock cycle roll-the-virtual-dice game
• create a digital model of the rock cycle to share with their peers in a virtual gallery
• video clips
• readings
• formative assessments
• post assessment
• ... and more!

These lessons are organized into 9 separate Google Docs that you will share with your students on Google Classroom. Each of these lessons takes 1 to 2 days to complete. Students will type directly on their copies of these Docs and these are what you will grade for each student.

My students have responded so well to this lesson format because they know what to expect. I love that I can schedule out all of the lessons in Google Classroom and I know what I’m teaching weeks out! The prep is easy and the grading is so easy too.

This download includes a Unit Overview Google Doc that is for the Teacher. This document has all of the lessons written out in sections (Lesson 1, Lesson 2, Lesson 3, etc.) so that you can see everything in one place. This document notes how many days (45 minute periods) each individual lesson will usually take to complete. This will help you with planning.

Please view the PREVIEW for more visuals of how this unit is organized.

These are the topics covered in each lesson:

Lesson 1: Intro

Lesson 2: What is a Mineral?

Lesson 3: Mineral Properties

Lesson 4: What is a Rock?

Lesson 5: Igneous Rocks

Lesson 6: Sedimentary and Metamorphic Rocks

Lesson 7: Types of Rocks Overview

Lesson 8: The Rock Cycle 1

Lesson 9: The Rock Cycle 2

Review Study Guide and Assessment (Test)

This unit was designed to satisfy the following NGSS Standard: MS-ESS2-1: Develop a model to describe the cycling of Earth’s material and the flow of energy that drives this process.

This unit has been completed by my students, and it has been revised and revamped by me. I'm confident that this unit will save you TONS of planning time! You will have 3 weeks of editable and flexible curriculum!

You can also take advantage of a HUGE discount off of this and all of my other Earth and Space resources in the Earth & Space Science BIG Bundle!

You may also be interested in these resources!:

Types of Rocks Cornell Doodle Notes

Rock Cycle Cornell Doodle Notes

Types of Rocks and the Rock Cycle Abracadabra Pixel Art Digital Review

Earth's Water and the Water Cycle Distance Learning Lesson

Weathering on Earth's Surface Cornell Doodle Notes

Erosion and Deposition Cornell Doodle Notes

Thanks for looking!

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