Year 3 - Properties of rocks

This week in Science we have been investigating the properties of rocks as part of our Geology unit. 

We discussed what we needed to do to carry out a fair test and we made sure that in our investigation we only changed one thing in order to make it fair. 

We carried out 3 tests. First we scratched the rocks with a 2p coin to see if they would scratch, so we could test the hardness of the rock. Secondly, we dripped water onto the rocks with a pipette to see if it soaked in to test the permeability of the rock. Lastly, we dripped vinegar (acid) onto the rocks to see if the rocks would fizz, and this was to test how easily the rock will erode. We used goggles to protect our eyes during this test.

At the end we used our knowledge about the properties of these rocks to make an educated guess about whether the rocks are sedimentary, metamorphic or igneous.