Core Sampling

MANCHESTER COLLEGE

LESSON PLAN by Amanda Cosaboom, Erin Bowers, and James Vincent

Lesson:  Core Sampling                     Length:  20 minutes               Grade Intended:  4^th

Academic Standard:  4.2.5    Write descriptions of investigations, using observations and other evidence as support for explanations.

Academic Standard:  4.2.7    Identify better reasons for believing something than “Everybody knows that ...” or “I just know,” and

                                                   discount such reasons when given by others.

Academic Standard:  4.3.6    Recognize and describe that rock is composed of different combinations of minerals.

Performance Objective:  Using a cupcake manipulative, the students will become familiar with and identify the layers of the earth with 100%

                                             accuracy.

Performance Objective:  By completing the cupcake activity, the students will demonstrate core sampling skills and the important use of gaining

                                             scientific information.

Assessment:  Diagnostic:  Answering of pre-activity questions.

Assessment:  Formative:  Various questions asked throughout the activity.

Assessment:  *Summative:  Using a diagram, the students will label the various layers of the earth.

                        *Assuming the teacher would use this form of assessment at the end of the entire unit.

Advanced Preparation by Teacher:  Bake enough cupcakes for every student.

                                                                 Obtain clear straws (cut in thirds), markers, white paper.

                                                                 Research information regarding the various layers of the earth, components of Earth compounds.

Procedure

            Introduction/Motivation:  How do geologists study what is below the Earth’s surface?

                                                           Geologists study the Earth and use many devises to discover what is under the surface.  Core samplings

                                                           done by putting hollow drilling tubes into the ground and extracting a sample of what the tubes went

                                                           through.

                                                           Show students a cupcake.  Ask: What do you think is inside the cupcake? How can we find out without eating

                                                           it or cutting into it?

                                                           Encourage students to think about how scientists study the Earth. (Core sampling)       

             Step-by-Step Plan: 1.  Provide each student with a cupcake, a paper plate, 2 sampling tubes (straws), drawing paper and markers.

                                                2.  Instruct them not to remove the paper from the cupcake.

                                                3.  Instruct students to draw what they think the inside of the cupcake looks like.

                                                4.  Explain and demonstrate to students how to take side core samples.

                                                5.  During sampling process, ask: Can you determine what the entire cupcake looks likes with these two core

                                                     samples?

                                                6.  Instruct students to make drawings of what they now think the inside of the cupcake looks like.

                                                7.  Instruct students to remove paper cupcake holder, observe the entire cupcake, and then take a bite out of it.  Observe

                                                     the actual look of the cupcake.

                                                8.  Explain that the cupcake represent the layers of the Earth.

                                                9.  Draw a diagram of the Earth and its layers on the chalkboard, and have students recreate the diagram on their own

                                                     paper.

                                              10.  Explain the type of rock materials contained in each layer of the Earth.

                                              11.  Compare the makeup of the Earth’s minerals and elements to that of the cupcakes own ingredients.

            Closure:          Review with students the layers of the Earth, asking them to identify the layers of the Earth from memory.

Adaptations:   Ask students who finish early to assist students who have questions.

Return to Self-Create Works: click here.