A Sweet Lesson on Weathering

This week, we learned that weathering is the breaking down or wearing away of a rock.  We've read about how water, wind, ice, and plants can weather rocks.  Today we started testing how forces cause rocks to wear away with peppermints, sand, and jars.

 First each group gently shook their jar for 1 minute,

made observations,

 and recorded their observations with pictures or words.  We repeated this procedure 3 times, then did it again with another peppermint, but this time shook vigorously.

 From left to right: our control (a peppermint that wasn't shaken), a gently shaken peppermint (see the small chip at the top?), and a vigorously shaken peppermint (see how a bigger piece broke off at the top?).

 Most students also noticed a change in color as the stripes wore off.

Check out this crack after some vigorous shaking!

On Tuesday,  we'll debrief this activity to discuss the relationship between strength of forces and effect on rocks/Earth's crust.