Q-ACTIVITIES

Students explore minerals and their properties from the collection of the Quartermain Earth Science Centre. They observe the properties of minerals through a series of inquiry-based activities. Students learn how to classify minerals and use an identification key. They discover the usefulness of minerals in daily life.

Duration:Duration: 60, 120 or 180 minutes

Academic Level: 4-5 and 6-8, high school

Procedure: After a short lively interactive introduction, students work in small groups as they move through six stations on mineral properties using a self-guided activity sheet. Each station involves short experiments exploring one or two mineral properties. Students complete experiments using minerals and appropriate geological tools.

Round and Round the Rock Cycle. Take a journey through the rocks that make up our Earth. Students learn how to read rocks by exploring magmatic, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks from the Quartermain Earth Science Collections. Students will explore surface and underwater volcanoes, intrusions, mineralized ore, sediment and fossils, and the dramatic metamorphic rocks - how these rocks harbour the secrets of their generation and evolution.

Duration: 60, 120 or 180 minutes

Academic Level: 4-5 and 6-8, high school

Procedure: After a short lively interactive introduction, students work in small groups as they move through the rock cycle: making igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks!

Where does our stuff come from? Students learn about the mineral resources needed in every day life. Students define the mining cycle then ponder the requirements of developing a mine in Canada. Students explore mine operations and the driving economics involved.

Duration: 60, 120 or 180 minutes

Academic Level: 4-6, 6-8, high school

Procedure: After a short lively interactive introduction on the mineral resources and the mining cycle, students work in small groups and devise a plan to open a mine somewhere in Canada. Groups are faced with the pressure to extract the ore while dealing with the environmental requirements and possible fines. For longer segments, this activity can be combined with the "Mining in Space" activity.

What is a volcano? Why do they explode? Why do so many people live near volcanoes? Students can be a volcanologist! Volcanoes are natural systems and always have some element of unpredictability. Volcanoes reveal inner earth structure and processes, influence gaseous composition of our atmosphere, change the planet’s radiative balance, redistribute energy through the Earth, and create new land! Any kind of volcano can also create harmful or deadly phenomena, so understanding what a volcano can do is the first step in mitigating volcanic hazards.

Duration: 90 or 180 minutes

Academic Level: 4-8, high school

Procedure: Students explore the field of volcanology in a variety of ways: 1) learning to identify the various types of volcanoes (e.g. Cinder Cone, Composite and Shield) and their eruption styles, 2) understanding the various hazards involved, 3) assessing a volcanic island for building a new community.

Earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain ranges are not randomly distributed across the planet—they tend to occur in specific regions. But why? The answer lies in plate tectonics! Plate tectonics explains that Earth's rigid outer layer, the lithosphere, is broken into moving plates. Where these plates interact—at their boundaries—major geological events take place, including earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and mountain formation. Many people live in earthquake-prone areas, making them vulnerable to both the immediate dangers (like ground shaking and building collapse) and secondary hazards (such as landslides and tsunamis). Understanding earthquakes helps us better prepare for and respond to these natural events.

Duration: 90, 120 or 180 minutes

Academic Level: 6-8, high school

Procedure: Students test the various concepts that are involved before, during and post-earthquake, including ductile versus brittle deformation, liquefaction, stick-slip motion and the behaviors of various seismic waves. Students are challenged to develop a model using real seismic data obtained from a region prone to earthquakes.

Understanding geologic time helps us grasp Earth's vast history and the processes that have shaped our planet. This activity will introduce students to how geoscientists measure relative and absolute time, the geologic time scale, key events in Earth's history, and the concept of deep time.

Duration: 90, 120 or 180 minutes

Academic Level: 6-8, high school

Procedure: How do geologists measure relative versus absolute time? After a lively introduction, students embark on activities involving relative time, and then are introduced to radioactive decay and how geologists use this steady "clock" to measure time.

Students will step into the role of paleontologists, exploring how fossils provide clues about Earth's ancient past. Students learn how fossils form, how scientists uncover them, and what they reveal about prehistoric life and environments. Students will see different types of fossils (body fossils, trace fossils) and how they help us reconstruct past ecosystems.

Duration: 90 or 180 minutes

Academic Level: elementary, 4-5, 6-8, high school

Procedure Get ready to dig into history! Think like a scientist—observe carefully, ask questions, and use evidence to identify and interpret fossils. Students connect fossil beds to a particular environment, and can determine its geologic age. Students can even make their own fossil to take home!

What is our most precious resource on the planet? Is it gold? Diamonds? More precious than any other resource is our water! Did you know that most of our usable drinking water comes from the ground? It is a mostly non-renewable resource worth protecting for a sustainable future!

Duration: 90, 120 or 180 minutes

Academic Level: 4-5, 6-8, high school

Procedure: Younger students play with scarves, sand and gravel to understand porosity and groundwater flow. Upper level students are intoduced to hydrogeology by using groundwater models and other scientific tools to calculate porosity and permeability values for various materials, apply terminology related to groundwater (e.g. aquifer, aquitard, water table), and explore environmental concerns such as floods, drought and groundwater contamination.