TEACHERS TAKE NOTE

Stone Wall Secrets

Kristine and Robert Thorson

Illustrated by Gustav Moore

Hardcover, $16.95, ISBN 978-0-88448-195-9

Paperback, $7.95, ISBN 978-0-88448-229-1

9 x 10, 40 pages, color illustrations

Children / Science; Grades 3-6

Stone Wall Secrets Teacher's Guide:
Exploring Geology in the Classroom

Ruth Deike

Paperback, $9.95, ISBN 978-0-88448-196-6

8.5 x 11, 90 pages, illustrations

Education / Science; Grades 3-6

Stone Wall 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.

Stone Wall 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

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.

• 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.
• Place all the bottles in a freezer overnight.
• 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!)
• 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.
• 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.