Sixth-graders focus on earth science, learning about the interior layers of the Earth and the forces that shape it, including plate tectonics and their effect on earthquake and volcano processes and patterns. Textbooks take students through the rock cycle (
click here for a video that explains it, from
National Geographic) and describe the properties of rocks and minerals and the ways people use them. In the classroom, teachers may discuss gems, minerals, and precious metals found in your grandchildren's home states. Students also study the properties of soil and how human activities affect the land, and how people try to limit their impact; they examine how rock and soil are transported naturally across the land. Throughout the year, students discover and use tools to monitor land and rocks, learn to read geological maps, and collect data to explain changes caused by natural phenomena over time.
Geology in the News. Earth science may seem as dry as rocks to some students, but the best sixth-grade teachers will show kids how geological processes that take place over thousands of years affect world politics today. Oil supplies buried underground in the Middle East and elsewhere have a profound effect on the global economy, for example, and in parts of Africa, diamond mining has funded violent rebel groups seeking to overthrow governments.
• Grandchildren can get a detailed introduction to how earthquakes and volcanoes form, and how scientists study them, in Susanna van Rose's picture-packed
Volcanoes and Earthquakes (DK, 2004).
• There are several great DVDs that depict the effects of quakes and volcanoes for grandchildren, including
Nova: Earthquake! The Science Behind the Shake (WGBH Boston, 2007).
• If you feel the need to brush up on your geology to keep up with the sixth-grade science student in your life, visit the Smithsonian Institution’s
National Museum of Natural History online. The museum's website offers multiple pages devoted to understanding geology and classifying gems and minerals, as well as a virtual tour of the stunning recent acquisitions of its
Department of Mineral Sciences.
You Were There. Have you ever experienced an earthquake or seen an active volcano in person? If so, share those stories with your grandchildren. Discuss what it felt like and how other people around you reacted.
Go Local. Collect rocks around your neighborhood with your grandchildren, then bring them home for a closer look under a magnifying glass and discuss what you see. Can your grandchildren see layers? Can they determine what type of rocks you've found? Can they suggest where the rocks came from, based on what they learned in science class?
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