This resource provides a 5E style lesson (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate) over the rock cycle, including a single-period lab using crayons to model the cycle.  It’s often a difficult concept for students to imagine that over millions of years, one kind of rock will change into another kind of rock.  This lab allows students to see the changes taking place, and learn important qualities of each type of rock and how they are formed.Photo:  Rainbow of Crayon Shavings by Richie Girardin via Flickr

Science Instructional Plans (SIPs) help teachers align instruction with the Science Standards of Learning (SOL) by providing examples of how the content and the scientific and engineering practices found in the SOL and curriculum framework can be presented to students in the classroom.

 Today, you want to discuss how artists can help bring awareness of environmental changes through art. Introduce a few artists that use environmental change as their theme. It is a good idea to have several artists that use different kinds of mediums. Examples: Nils-Udo, Andy Goldsworthy, Richard Shilling, Agnes Denes, Chris Jordan, Benjamin Von Wong, Olafur Eliasson, Amanda Schachter, Rachel Sussman, and Mathilde Roussel. These are some environmental artists of different backgrounds and diversity that work in different medians.  Discuss how posters have been used to educate others on environmental changes. Show your teacher’s example of an educational and artistic environmental poster. Talk about your poster and the environmental concept that you chose as an example of not only the artwork but on a presentation as well.

Video Description:   Find out how rocks brought to Earth by the Apollo astronauts have helped NASA learn more about the rock cycle. Compare igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks found on Earth to three types of rocks found on the moon.     Video Length:  4:08.NASA eClipsTM is a suite of online student-centered, standards-based resources that support instruction by increasing STEM literacy in formal and nonformal settings.  These free digital and downloadable resources inform and engage students through NASA-inspired, real-world connections.NASA eClips Our World videos (grades 3-5) help students understand the differences between science (the natural world) and engineering (the designed world).  These video segments supplement elementary learning objectives not only in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, but also in reading, writing, visual and performing arts.

Description:  There is weathering, erosion, and deposition occurring on the playground and disturbing the area where the students can play!  First, invite the students to try to locate areas on the school grounds that show signs of these processes.  Visit these areas as a class and observe what is happening as the soil is broken down, moved away, and dropped somewhere else. (If there is not an appropriate spot on the school grounds, the teacher can use a photograph.)  Your job is to determine the best way to stop the soil from breaking down and moving so the playground is not ruined.