SCHOOL: Wake Christian Academy

GRADE LEVEL: 4th

PROGRAM: Can You Dig It?

INSTRUCTOR: Craig Kwiatkowski

Scientist Craig’s Experience:

I knew as soon as I woke up Tuesday morning that I was going to have an awesome day! That was because I was going to Wake Christian, which is one of my favorite schools. Every time I show up, I am welcomed with such smiling faces and the students and teachers always seem to remember us. I had the pleasure of visiting the 4th graders to teach them a program all about Geology.

Upon entering the rooms, there were a lot of whispers as the students tried to figure out exactly what experiments and topics they would be discussing today. I heard one boy comment, “I heard we are going to be digging things up and searching for some rocks.” He, along with most others, guess correctly. To start the program we discussed the difference between minerals and the 3 different types of rocks. We even got to observe a giant quartz!

After becoming professionals at describing rocks and minerals, they students dug right into their experiments. Each student received a piece of the Earth’s crust to dig into. The didn’t hesitate to begin and it didn’t take long for them to start collecting many different samples. We found everything from hematite to bloodstone and a few students even thought they found some gold. Later we found out it happened to be pyrite.

A great scientist always takes their experimenting a step further, so we decided to do some field tests on our samples. We learned about how geologists classify rocks and minerals into different categories. They tested the hardness of their rock and mineral samples and determined the calcites minerals were the softest. They had an awesome time testing which of their minerals were conductors of electricity. It turns out pyrite and peacock copper allow electricity to pass through them! Who knew?

I had amazing time with the 4th graders at Wake Christian and can’t wait to see them again. Hope you guys had an awesome time and keep on digging!