Technoscience

Learning Intention: Students will understand the properties of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks and how they are formed. They will relate chnages in landscape formations over time with processes such as weathering, erosion, fossilisation and movement of continental plates.

Success Criteria: At the completion of this unit each student will be able to distinguish between igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks and give common examples of each. They will be able to describe the way our earth changes over geological time.

This photograph was taken at Nature’s Window, near Kalbarri, in Western Australia. You can see the layers of different coloured rock, which indicates that this is sedimentary rock. In the western district, we see a lot of igneous rocks, formed from lava flows of volcanoes. Metamorphic rocks are those that have changes over time due to heat and pressure.

• “How do rocks undergo change” is an excellent resource with photographs and an interactive rock-cycle animation.
• The Australian Museum also has some great resources to learn about “Shaping the Earth”.
• BBC Bitesize has seven revision bites about the three different types of rocks, weathering, erosion and the rock cycle.
• Discover how rocks are formed with the “Rock Hounds”.