• "Notable Books for Children, 1998" —Smithsonian
  
• "Readers will never look at old stones the same way again."
  —Debra Briatico, Children's Literature
• "...chock-full of real geology, in plain English that will make sense to children and  laymen alike....should be in every library that provides science books to children." —Appraisal

STONE WALL SECRETS TEACHER'S GUIDE
Exploring Geology in the Classroom

Ruth Deike

Ruth Deike, a geologist with the U. S. Geologic Survey for more than thirty years and the founder of The Rock Detective, a non-profit educational organization, brings boundless energy to teaching school children about earth science. Her Teacher's Guide incorporates the imagery and wonder of Stone Wall Secrets with hands-on classroom activities that illustrate basic earth science concepts, opening doors into ideas and concepts more beautiful and wild than Star Wars, Star Trek, and Superman combined! Working with the National Science Education Standards, she has created a variety of exciting activities, from exploring the earth's building blocks to studying volcanoes to posing intriguing questions such as, Does the Earth itch? Or, Will there be another ice age?

Teachers Take Note:
Stonewall Secrets will provide students with an outstanding introduction to earth sciences. Students will enjoy the story which takes place on a New England farm and moves all the way back through time to the origins of the earth.

Stonewall Secrets will help inspire classroom conversations about:
• The origins of the earth
• Time/ Ice Age
• Geology and surface of the earth
• Careers in landscape and geology

Resources:
• Teaching Resources:
The Rock Detectives: This is the program developed by our teacher’s guide author, Ruth Deike. When Ruth took early retirement from the National Geologic Survey, the NGS was downsizing and also discarding years’ of rock collections. Ruth shipped four semi-truck loads of palletized rock collections to an empty dairy barn on her rural Maine farm and set up a non-profit organization to teach geoscience to kids. The rocks go into Rock Detective Kits, which use "mystery questions" to encourage inquiry-based learning. The curriculum is keyed to the National Science Content Standards. www.rockdetective.org
Science information for teachers: http://www.scicentral.com
Environmental education school projects, K-12: This website features links to specific school projects. www.webdirectory.com/education/k-12/
NOVA site for teachers guides: www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachersguide/mammoth
Webquest on information at San Diego State University: http://edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest/webquest.html

• Websites for general earth science education:
Geology Link: www.geologylink.com
Volcano World: http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vw.html

Author Web Site: Professor Robert M. Thorson maintains a Stonewall Secrets Web Page. Visit it at http://stonewall.uconn.edu/sw-resSWS.html

Activity:
Freezing Ice in a Plastic Bottle

Objective: To show the power of expanding ice.

National Science Education Content Standard(s), K-4, 5-8
Major Emphasis: A, B, C; Minor Emphasis: E;
Other Content: Public Speaking

Materials Needed: Small plastic soft drink bottles for each student in your class. The bottles must have screw-on caps and a narrow neck. They should be light colored or clear.

Procedure:
1. Have each student put her/his name on a bottle. Fill the bottles with clean water to within 1/2 inch of the top, mark the water level, and screw on the cap.
2. Place all the bottles in a freezer overnight.
3. In the morning, have each student draw his or her bottle and write a short description of what happened. (Ice forming in the bottle will expand, might split the bottle, and/or pop the cap off and goosh out the top!)
4. Have a class discussion about why. Prompt for the concept that when water freezes, its volume increases. At room temperature, 70 degrees F., one cubic centimeter of liquid water (it would be helpful to draw one on the board) occupies one cubic centimeter. But at 0 degrees F., the same water once frozen occupies more than one cubic centimeter.
5. How does this relate to stones popping up in Grampa's field? In the winter, ice pushes with great force on the boulders. As long as the force is equal in all directions, the boulder won't move, but as soon as the ice melts over the top of the boulder, it will move upward just like the ice in your students' bottles.