My independent discovery is about rocks and minerals. Last year, we have an earth science class and we also learn about rocks, so that class inspired me. Below are some of my reflections and pictures from each class time period that I have for this project.
Wednesday 12th August 2015
My project is about rocks identification. I want to collect rocks from different places. In the next three weeks, I would go to Mondulkiri province, so I hope to find some rocks there. I would organize my data and put it in a place where everyone at Liger can see. I also want to make a blog so that everyone can see. I also want to make a blog so that everyone can see, not just Liger can see. I have a lot of references(books) from teachers. My favorite one is a book that’s called “Rock and Mineral”by Chris Pellant. I might need some help from Liger people for finding rocks from different places.
Friday 14th August 2015
By reading my favorite book, I found out some materials that I can use for my project. There are field materials which means material for rock hunting and home materials is for experiments after hunting. For field materials, I would like to have wide-ended chisel, thin sharp-pointed chisel, hammer for breaking up large rocks, tools for hardness testing such as utility knife, cloth bag paper and bubble wrap to pack rocks, recording equipment such as notebook, pen, and camera. For home material, I want to have cleaning tools such as pointed scraper, spatula, dust blower, brushes and cleaning liquid like hydrochloric and distilled water (can be made by myself). I also want stuff for identifying and testing hardness of rocks, for example: glass, coin, knife blade, cotton swabs and if possible x10 hand len. I found three ways to make distilled water in WikiHow website. This book also tell how to organize the data that we have collected. It would need index card to write about rocks, card file folder to index card alphabetically and, of course, notebook and pen. To organize rocks, I can put it in small boxes and put them in big box.
Friday 21th August 2015
I did some research about what are the meaning of rocks and mineral and what is the difference between rocks and minerals. Minerals are solid, non-living elements or elemental compound. Rocks are formed by different mineral grain. They are also main components of the earth. There are three types of rocks, metamorphic, sedimentary and igneous. I also learned that there are three stages for rocks identification. First, we need to know whether the rock is metamorphic, sedimentary or igneous. Then, we identify the types of grain the rock is, there are three types of grain, coarse grained (can see directly with eye), medium grained (use hand len to see) and fine grained (use microscope to see). Finally, we identify the color. For igneous rock there are light color, medium color and dark color. For metamorphic rock there are foliated and unfoliated. For sedimentary there are mainly rock fragments, mainly quartz fragments, calcium carbonate dominant and other minerals.
Friday 11th September 2015
A new idea: put the rock identifying material in the science lab and anyone can identify the rock that they found by themselves with the guideline that I researched and printed.
Wednesday 30th October 2015
Wednesday 7th October 2015
I continue setting up the material for the tests and I got the new rock collection from Jeff this week. I also looked at the acid and poured in a dropper bottle. I noticed that the acid turned to yellow but it is still working. Before holiday, I need to send an email to students and facilitators to inform them to bring rocks for me on their holiday.
Wednesday 28th October 2015
Wednesday 18th November 2015
Making distilled water at Karen’s apart
Friday 22nd January 2016
Making a small shelf to organize the rocks I got:
