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Rock Climbing and Fossils

Class Title: Rock Climbing and Fossils
Audience: 5th Grade
Offered: 1st Quarter
Length: 1 hr. 50minutes (If time allows, students will look around in the Exploration Hall.)

Preparing for this Class:

1. Students should come well dressed for class including coat, and hats/gloves when appropriate.
2. All students need to be wearing closed-toed shoes that fit well. Sloppy/loose shoes are hard to climb in.
3. If girls wear a dress or skirt, they should wear pants or shorts underneath.
4. Review of the vocabulary words before class is helpful.
5. In case of inclement weather, we will call you concerning rescheduling options.

I. Class Description

This class provides students the opportunity to hike and explore the geologic history (sandstone layers, cave entrances, and the Quarry) as well the historic past of the park and how the two are interconnected. The class explores the changes that have happened over geologic time to provide us with the rocks and fossils we see today. While in the Quarry students will look for fossils and work towards identifying them and comparing these ancient fossils to other fossils as well as to living animals. The rock-climbing portion of the class provides students with an individual challenge (of varying degrees of difficulty) and an introduction to proper rock climbing techniques and equipment. Rock climbing also builds good communication skills and teaches team-building skills as students help-out and encourage their classmates.

II. Correlation to MN Science Standards

1. Recognize that rocks may be uniform or made of mixtures of different minerals. (4.3.1.3.1)
2. Explain how, over time, rocks weather and combine with organic matter to form soil. (5.3.1.2.1)
3. Explain how slow processes, such as water erosion, and rapid processes, such as landslides and volcanic eruptions, form features of the Earth's surface. (5.3.1.2.2)
4. Give examples of simple machines and demonstrate how they change the input and output of forces and motion. (5.2.2.1.1)
5. Identify the force that starts something moving or changes its speed or direction of motion. (5.2.2.1.2)
6. Demonstrate that a greater force of an object can produce a greater change in motion. (5.2.2.1.3)

III. Science Vocabulary (*denotes a Quarry Hill vocabulary word)

Landforms Weathering Erosion Deposition Belay*

Sediment Abrasion Geology* Sandstone * Carabiner*

Limestone * Shale * Quarry* Fossil*

Living fossil* Trilobite* Cephalopod* Brachiopod*

After completion of one of these programs please fill out and submit our evaluation form. You may fill it out and submit it online, or print it out and mail it to Quarry Hill Nature Center. Thank you for your time!