My 8th Grade, 3rd Period Science Class Tumbles.
Nov 12, 2016 6:19:42 GMT -5
Peruano, jamesp, and 3 more like this
Post by osuguy0301 on Nov 12, 2016 6:19:42 GMT -5
I figured I would start this off a little ahead of time and update as we go. Sadly, I keep forgetting to take my camera or even take pictures with my phone as I go through the steps of this process. Maybe on the next clean out i will get some pictures.
Anyhow, currently my 3rd period science class has started on their batch of tumbled rocks. At the school I teach at we ability group students by class and my 3rd period class is the class that has my special education students and my lower achieving general education students. The vast majority of these students are also what the state labels as disadvantaged: low socioeconomic status, broken home (if they have a steady home), behavior/discipline problems, etc. Despite all of this, these are the students who have taken the greatest interest in this project. Recently I have brought in a book on rock identification and many of them have been trying to identify some of the rocks that I have out for display. Most of these students wouldn't read a book if you paid them, so this has been very encouraging.
I started with them on 10-19-16. I broke up some of the bigger rocks I had in my basement and brought them in. This batch is mainly Arizona pet wood, quartzite, and Montana agate with some other random rocks sprinkled in such as amethyst, red and yellow jasper, unakite, and girasol opal. I had them all pick out some rocks they wanted to tumble, we put them in a pile, and then talked about what they were and where they came from. I then explained the process to them, put them in the tumbler, and added 60/90 grit, some water, and we were rolling.
I like to do my clean outs on a Friday, it gives the students something to look forward to and makes for an easy last day of the week. So on 10-28-16 we opened up the barrel to see the progress. I dumped the rocks into the strainer, rinsed them off and the students proceeded to start cleaning them off. After everyone was done cleaning, we put them all on a table and discussed the progress. It was minimal as would be expected but we talked about the difference from the rough rocks to these and how the volume of the barrel had decreased from when we started. We pitched in a few more rocks to bring the volume back up, added more 60/90 grit and put it back on for another week.
A sidenote, when I was breaking up my rocks I had a bunch of slivers that I collected into a Tupperware container. I sprinkled some of this in when we started in order to get a nice mix of sizes. When we cleaned out the barrel, the bigger sized ones I put back in but the really small pieces that wore down to a couple millimeters I left out. Most of these got stuck in cracks of the strainer so I just pulled them out and put them on a towel. The kids asked what i was going to do with them and I told them I was going to probably throw them away. Many asked if them could have them, so I let them take them. You could barely make out what they are but this just shows their level of interest in this.
On 11-4-16 we opened up the barrel again to do a clean out. After cleaning off the rocks they still weren't quite ready to move onto the 120/220 stage. The students were slightly disappointed but I explained that this is an exercise in patience and that what we are doing in a matter of weeks takes Mother Nature 100's if not 1000's of years to do. We put in a few more rocks to get the appropriate volume, put in some more 60/90 grit and left it to tumble for another week.
On 11-11-16 we opened the barrel to see our progress. Many of the rocks had shaped nicely although a number of them were not ready to move on. I had a bucket of rocks that I had worked on over the summer that were ready for 120/220 so I swapped the rocks that weren't ready to move on for the rocks i had that were ready to move on. Some of the students didn't understand why all the rocks couldn't be moved on. So I showed them the difference between a rock that was ready versus one that was not ready. I explained that some rocks might need months in the 60/90 grit in order to be ready to move on. Thats why I had buckets of rocks for different stages ready because not everything moves on at the same time. We got the level to about 75%, added 120/220, and started rolling again.
The next scheduled clean out is 11-18-16. The students go on Thanksgiving break the 23rd-25th so I may have to make a trip to the school on the day after Thanksgiving to keep this thing on schedule but I only live a few minutes from the school and I have a key card to get in so it wouldn't be a problem. I plan to update this over the next few weeks until it is complete and hopefully I will remember to take some pictures other than the final product.
Thanks for looking and check in to see the progress
Jake
Anyhow, currently my 3rd period science class has started on their batch of tumbled rocks. At the school I teach at we ability group students by class and my 3rd period class is the class that has my special education students and my lower achieving general education students. The vast majority of these students are also what the state labels as disadvantaged: low socioeconomic status, broken home (if they have a steady home), behavior/discipline problems, etc. Despite all of this, these are the students who have taken the greatest interest in this project. Recently I have brought in a book on rock identification and many of them have been trying to identify some of the rocks that I have out for display. Most of these students wouldn't read a book if you paid them, so this has been very encouraging.
I started with them on 10-19-16. I broke up some of the bigger rocks I had in my basement and brought them in. This batch is mainly Arizona pet wood, quartzite, and Montana agate with some other random rocks sprinkled in such as amethyst, red and yellow jasper, unakite, and girasol opal. I had them all pick out some rocks they wanted to tumble, we put them in a pile, and then talked about what they were and where they came from. I then explained the process to them, put them in the tumbler, and added 60/90 grit, some water, and we were rolling.
I like to do my clean outs on a Friday, it gives the students something to look forward to and makes for an easy last day of the week. So on 10-28-16 we opened up the barrel to see the progress. I dumped the rocks into the strainer, rinsed them off and the students proceeded to start cleaning them off. After everyone was done cleaning, we put them all on a table and discussed the progress. It was minimal as would be expected but we talked about the difference from the rough rocks to these and how the volume of the barrel had decreased from when we started. We pitched in a few more rocks to bring the volume back up, added more 60/90 grit and put it back on for another week.
A sidenote, when I was breaking up my rocks I had a bunch of slivers that I collected into a Tupperware container. I sprinkled some of this in when we started in order to get a nice mix of sizes. When we cleaned out the barrel, the bigger sized ones I put back in but the really small pieces that wore down to a couple millimeters I left out. Most of these got stuck in cracks of the strainer so I just pulled them out and put them on a towel. The kids asked what i was going to do with them and I told them I was going to probably throw them away. Many asked if them could have them, so I let them take them. You could barely make out what they are but this just shows their level of interest in this.
On 11-4-16 we opened up the barrel again to do a clean out. After cleaning off the rocks they still weren't quite ready to move onto the 120/220 stage. The students were slightly disappointed but I explained that this is an exercise in patience and that what we are doing in a matter of weeks takes Mother Nature 100's if not 1000's of years to do. We put in a few more rocks to get the appropriate volume, put in some more 60/90 grit and left it to tumble for another week.
On 11-11-16 we opened the barrel to see our progress. Many of the rocks had shaped nicely although a number of them were not ready to move on. I had a bucket of rocks that I had worked on over the summer that were ready for 120/220 so I swapped the rocks that weren't ready to move on for the rocks i had that were ready to move on. Some of the students didn't understand why all the rocks couldn't be moved on. So I showed them the difference between a rock that was ready versus one that was not ready. I explained that some rocks might need months in the 60/90 grit in order to be ready to move on. Thats why I had buckets of rocks for different stages ready because not everything moves on at the same time. We got the level to about 75%, added 120/220, and started rolling again.
The next scheduled clean out is 11-18-16. The students go on Thanksgiving break the 23rd-25th so I may have to make a trip to the school on the day after Thanksgiving to keep this thing on schedule but I only live a few minutes from the school and I have a key card to get in so it wouldn't be a problem. I plan to update this over the next few weeks until it is complete and hopefully I will remember to take some pictures other than the final product.
Thanks for looking and check in to see the progress
Jake