Curriculum+Overview

Through a multi-content project about rocks as a natural resource, student learning is further developed in the following 21st century student outcomes:
 * 1) Core subjects of language arts, science, arts, and economics
 * 2) Environmental literacy
 * 3) Learning and Innovation skills of written and oral communication,
 * 4) Information, Media and Technology skills



Students learn the basics of how to research necessary information about specific rocks. They also work on their skills to type their research into a digital organizer that can be exported into a word processing program, rather than writing it on a paper organizer, to later be typed into the word processor. An online mapping program acts as the students' webquest. Students can see the physical location from which the different types of rocks are found. Their exported research into a Microsoft Word document becomes the basis of a letter to their parents/guardians discussing what they learned about their favorite rock, chosen from a selection of six Pennsylvania rocks. Using Microsoft Paint, students create their own representation of their rock, or something that is made from their rock and save the file as a picture file. Finally, acting as a tour guide for the PA Visitors� Bureau, the students use their research to create a digital story in Microsoft Photostory inviting the viewer to visit the county from which their rock is found. This extension of their science unit on Earth Materials is further reinforced through a video conference with a rock specialist in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
 * [[image:Rocks_of_PA_map.JPG width="680" height="351" align="center" caption="Rocks of Pennsylvania Map"]] ||

All of this unit can be done from the perspective of any state or country. Students will be encouraged to take ownership of local discovery and appreciate raw materials that are literally under their feet. This continually evolving project has been a fun way to ignite the innovation of our future generation's imaginations.

Source of 21st Century skills framework: []