Key Stage 2, Year 3 Science
Welcome to the Geologists’ Association Schoolrocks! box scheme
What do we do?
Our Schoolrocks! boxes, lesson plans and activities are carefully designed to meet the specific requirements of the Rocks and Soils section of the National Curriculum Year 3 Science.
What is in a Schoolrocks! box?
Each box contains child hand-sized specimens of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. There are also fossils, hand lenses, a UBS stick with lesson plans and activities and some small fossils which can be given to the children. In fact, everything you need to teach the Rocks and Soils section of the National Curriculum Year 3 Science.
Can Schoolrock boxes be used for home education? Definitely! We have been told how much fun home educated children have had learning about rocks and soils using our boxes and learning ideas.
How much does a Schoolrock! box cost?
We ask for a £25 returnable deposit when you book a Schoolrocks! box. If your school is within our distribution area, we will try to offer you free delivery and collection. If you are outside our area, we ask you to pay postage charges.
How long can I keep a Schoolrocks! box?
You can keep a box for up to ten weeks.
How can I use a Schoolrocks! box for on-line teaching?
We can supply a limited number of visualisers to enhance your on-line teaching, providing you book one of our Schoolrocks! boxes at the same time. We ask for an additional £25 returnable deposit. Information about the visualisers can be found here.
How do I find out more?
We suggest that you watch our short video which gives more detail about the content of the boxes.
How do I book a box?
Please email the Schoolrocks! box co-ordinator, Haydon Bailey (email@example.com) for additional information and details of how to book a box.
We look forward to hearing from you
The Geologists’ Association Schoolrocks! team.
Outline of the learning activities suggested by the Schoolrocks! team
Each set of activities takes approximately one and a half hour. Together they form a complete six-week programme of lesson suggestions and resources.
- Suggestion One - Let’s be geologists! The activities link back to Year 1 Science ‘What is a rock?’
- Suggestion Two – Geology detectives. This extends lesson 1 with more detail about the three main rock groups and encourages children to investigate the sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks in the Schoolrocks! box.
- Suggestion Three – Be a research geologist. Lots of simple experiments to investigate how the rocks in the box might change over time.
- Suggestion four – Let’s find out about fossils. What is a fossil? Let’s make a fossil!
- Suggestion five – I’m a palaeontologist! How did the fossils in the box form? What were they like when they were alive?
- Suggestion six – Let’s find out about soil. What is soil and how does it form? Investigations using sandstone from the box and local soils.