In conjunction with the Barnes Nature Center Spring Fair
Saturday, May 13, 2017 • 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Barnes Nature Center
60 Shrub Road, Bristol, CT
The Bristol and Meriden Mineral Clubs will jointly host Rocks for All Ages, a learning event at the Barnes Nature Center (BNC) on Saturday, May 13, as part of the BNC Spring Fair.
The Rocks for All Ages program will consist of 6 or 7 stations that focus on different aspects of the earth sciences and that build on one another, reflecting the kids’ science curriculum, and culminating in a “Test Your Knowledge” at the last station. We will cover the following concepts at the stations:
1. Minerals: what they are; properties of minerals and how to use properties to identify them. Illustration of, and practice with hardness, cleavage, magnetism, streak, & relative weight tests.
2. Rocks: the 3 rock types and the environments in which they formed. There will be lots of samples of rocks found in Connecticut and you’ll learn how to tell them apart.
3. The rock cycle: how weathering, erosion, sedimentary accumulations, burial, metamorphism and re-melting form the 3 rock types and how the rock cycle occurs in plate tectonics.
4. Fossils: what types of rocks contain fossils, how fossils form, how they have changed through geologic time and how they help geologists understand the geology of an area.
5. Plate tectonics: plate movements, types and interactions at plate boundaries, how plate movements lead to earthquakes and volcanoes. Imagine the world as one giant continent and how it split to form the continents as we know them today.
6. Volcanoes: Shield volcanoes and cone volcanoes are two major types of volcanoes which have very different characteristics and risks that affect us.
7. Test Your Knowledge: We’ll have a fun “test” to complete at the end of the stations using rock and mineral specimens and prizes and starter collection pieces for those who finish the stations.
There will be lots of samples of minerals and rocks to handle and learn with. The clubs’ Lapidary Center, which is located at the Barnes Nature Center, will be open and in use for the public to see and tour.