First Grade Rocks!

Today our Mrs. Mangum took our class on a field trip to Martin Marietta Rock Quarry. A recent rock slide (see above) kept us from being able to go all the way down into the Quarry, but it didn't stop us from having a great time!

We began our visit by looking down into the quarry. We learned about erosion and how the water can cause the rocks to change over time. We also learned that the quarry is 500 feet deep at this point and they are planning to dig out another 400 feet in the future. We figured out that once this quarry is completely finished, the Empire State Building will fit inside and only a few stories of it will stick out!

We got to drive around and see many of the different kinds of rocks that come out of the quarry. We watched rocks go through the crusher to go from being medium sized rocks to small rocks, sand, or gravel. We also got to see some of the machinery moving and dumping rocks. One student pointed out "They are sorting!" when they were moving rocks from pile to pile based on size. You have to love that math really is all around us!

We got to look at some of the machinery up close. We found that one of the scoops can hold our whole class!

Then we found that it can actually hold our class AND Mrs. Shaginaw's class!

Mr. Thomas commented that we were a little bit like Mrs. Frizzle on the Magic School Bus as we drove down into the quarry surrounded by huge rocks and huge machinery that made our bus seem so tiny! If you know anything about Magic School Bus books, you would know that this really was true! We were traveling down in the earth ,ultimately, just like they do!

After our tour, we got to go and watch some videos of the people working at the quarry using explosives to blow up some of the rock. The children thought that was really neat. We also got to look at some maps of what the quarry looks like from a bird's eye view and could compare different years and different amounts of rocks that had been taken out. This helped it to tie in not only our science curriculum, but also our social studies because we have been learning about maps!

Thank you Martin Marietta! We had a great time!!