SCHOOL: Hodge Road Elementary School

GRADE: 4th Grade

PROGRAM: Can You Dig It?

Scientist: Karla Johnson

4th Grade: Can You Dig It?

Yesterday, I went cave mining with the fourth grade classes of Hodge Road Elementary! I was absolutely thrilled to see their faces light up as I walked into the room. These faces were just as excited as I was because we were about to become geologists for a day. We started by imagining we had a warm melty chocolate chip cookie; when it got closer to lunchtime I could tell this analogy was really getting some scientist hungry! I explained how the chocolate chips would be a lot like the minerals in a rock, and the cookie would be the rock. I saw all the scientists’ brains turning and I even had a few scientists make another analogy that involved food! (I was super excited because I love food!) After we learned about the difference between a rock and a mineral we started talking about the three different types of rocks and how they are formed; the scientist already knew so much about the topic that we moved deep into the layers of the Earth! We all thought it was amazing how hot each layer is, and I got some really good questions about the different plates that make up the Earth’s crust. I was so happy to see scientist with such an interest in our Earth!

Finally, we did our own excavation and we could all barely contain our excitement as we assembled our head lamps and gathered all of our geologist tools. As we turned out the lights and began our excavation, I heard shrill screams of excitement and scientist exclaiming “ I found gold!” We found so many good minerals that one scientist even told me this was the best field trip ever! I’d say it was a pretty good one for not even leaving the classroom! Then we even got to figure out which rocks the scientist got by testing them out with tests that geologist in the field use! I had so much fun that I can’t wait to visit the scientists of Hodge Road Elementary again!