Reading Rock Layers

Lab Brief #4

🎯 Your mission

Predict it first. Then prove yourself right (or wrong).

⚡ The twist

Today's mountain was yesterday's ocean floor.

What you'll learn

Sedimentary rocks form in layers, with the oldest layers at the bottom. Geologists use these layers to determine the relative age of rocks and the fossils they contain.

Key words

sedimentary
Rock formed from layers of sand, mud, and pressed pieces.
fossil
The preserved remains or print of a plant or animal from long ago.
rock cycle
The slow process where rocks change from one type to another.

Make a hypothesis first

Guess: where will the water go first?

Say your guess out loud — then find out if you were right.

Get ready

🧰 What you need

rocks
water
plastic tray

⚠️ Safety first

Wash your hands thoroughly afterwards and keep the material away from your face.
Mop up spills straight away so nobody slips, and keep liquids away from sockets.

Step 1 of 4 · Read

Look at the vocabulary words and write a definition for each in your own words.

Step 2 of 4 · Do

Model erosion: tilt a tray of soil and pour water from a cup at the top. Observe how channels form. Try adding plants or rocks to slow the erosion.

Step 3 of 4 · Observe

Note any unexpected results and think about why they happened.

Step 4 of 4 · Record

Share your findings with the class or a partner and discuss what you learned.

Question 1 of 3

Which type of rock forms under heat and pressure?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 2 of 3

How do fossils form?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 3 of 3

What type of rock forms from cooled magma?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Mind = blown

🌋 There are 1,500 active volcanoes on Earth right now.

Nice work!

You got 0 of 3 right.

Next: How Erosion Moves Earth All lessons

🎯

Next Smart Experiment

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✨ More to explore

🌍 Where you see this in real life: Today's weather, tomorrow's beach, next century's coastline — all this.

🏆 Stretch challenge (try it this week): Look at the sky for 5 minutes and try to predict tomorrow's weather.

👨‍👩‍👧 For the dinner table: “What's the slowest change you can think of?”

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