Week 10- Rock Cycle

 For lab this week, we got to actually melt crayons to model the rock cycle. Looking back, I should have used bigger pieces of crayons because mine didn't quite turn out. It was still a super fun lab though! 

While we learned about the rock cycle, I found it interesting that Ted said it's never beneficial for students to name or classify rocks. It actually says that in the standard. Here is the graphic that I found the most helpful as we learned about the rock cycle: 

The most common changes rocks go through are due to erosion and deposition. This can be by wind, water, or glacier. 

"Weathering and Erosion is the process by which rocks are attacked by the environment. There are two types of weathering, mechanical and chemical.  

    - Mechanical weathering is simply breaking the rock down into smaller fragments. This process forms detrital sedimentary rocks. 

    - Chemical weathering occurs when chemical reactions alter the composition of a rock. The chemical sediment that forms from this type of erosion forms chemical sedimentary rocks." (Ted's Slides) 

- Law of Superposition: basically says the oldest rock is laid down first at the bottom

- Principle of Original Horizontality: layers of sedimentary rocks are laid horizontally when they are formed