ILSThis curriculum was developed in conjunction with the efforts of 5th & 6th grade students at TOAST, a magnet school in the Albany City School District in NY under the guidance of Dr. Eileen O'Connor in 2002. These materials supported TOASTY (the team's mascot) curriculum geologists team's web site of great links and an input form (this site is hosted by ILS).  Geologists are sometimes nicknamed, Rock Hounds.  If you join, you will be acting as rock hounds as you assemble information and ideas for the lessons that you will be creating.  Click the terms below to move to different sections; some links may be out-of-date, but you will also find many useful resources.
  • A page that shows the major geology categories we will be considering in our geology investigations; the icon to the right also links to this page
  • A page with many general links to web sites that have rock and geology information; the volcano map picture below came from one of these sites; there is a page with more detailed, informative sites, we'll call this one For Teachers but anyone can go there
 Schematic of topics addressed by links
  • An area where you can enter ideas, facts, good web sites, and information about rock and geology.  Use this page so you don't lose your GOOD IDEAS and so you can share them with other Toasty Rock Hounds.  These ideas will be gathered at school.
  • This page links to the notes from our first meeting; notes from the second meeting 
  • You can download two different PowerPoint files that contain information from the web about geology.  If you have PowerPoint on your computer, you can run these presentations
  • You can download two different Word files that give you a special project to complete for the class; if you have Word on your computer, you can use these files for your work: 
    • a "Teaching Challenge" where you and your group can make a lesson for Second Graders - directions are in this Word document
    • a "Geology Story" where you write and illustrate a story about some of the geology facts - directions are in this Word document.

After we make the lessons and the activities, we will make a "learning" web site.  To make the site we need to work together, alone, and on committees.  We need committees to check on our:

  • research and reporting accuracy -- about information presented
  • activities and models -- do they help understanding (not just memorizing)?
  • writing -- the clarity, spelling, and grammar 
  • art and design -- is it well labeled and understandable to everyone?
What other committees do we need so that our work is the best in New York State?  

REMEMBER, Einstein said:  "It's not that I'm so smart , it's just that I stay with problems longer."