Our students recently enjoyed an incursion with Cecily from Australian Earth Science Education. The role of AESE is to create, produce and deliver innovative, valuable earth sciences experiences to students and the community and to emphasise the importance of earth sciences in understanding contemporary issues.
Our incursion commenced with a study of a map of WA to identify the various minerals and rocks and determine their age.
Cecily showed the students how to use a hand lens to make observations.
Cecily introduced the activity. The students investigated the chemistry of soils, testing for lime to help out a farmer with their crop (via a simple test with vinegar). Ww found out that calcium carbonate (lime) is also in Caltrate. We tested a few drops of vinegar on a Caltrate tablet.
We investigated other rocks to see if the acid in the vinegar would make a change to the rock.
We concluded the investigation by sharing our findings for each of the three rocks. Mrs Cogger recorded the students responses in the Class Science Journal.
We would like to that Cecily for coming to St Emilie’s and sharing her geology knowledge with us. She triggered many new ideas and questions with the students.