Junior Geologist Lab Displays: First in a Series

by John Weidner, MSDC Treasurer

Nine months of the year,* on the fourth Thursday of the month, MSDC holds a kids rock club meeting at the Kings Park Library in Fairfax Virginia. We ask kids to bring in a rock to the meeting that they wish to talk or ask about. Our goal is to have them talking about their rock rather than about ours.

Even if kids don’t bring in a rock to share, we encourage them to come and check things out. We always have lots of rocks and fossils to show them, including a display of fluorescent minerals, and we have pictures for them to color. We also have rock sorting challenges for them. Here’s my favorite.

First, we set out 12 fossils. Then we set out 12 pictures – four different fossils on each of three different pages. These pictures are the very animals and plants that the fossils come from. The challenge? Match the picture to the fossil.

No, it’s not hard. The point is not to stump the kids, and I don’t think you would have trouble with it (try it). The point is to get all the kids to handle the fossils and to think about where they fossils came from. 

Want a simpler challenge?  Try this one. 

* Note: we do NOT hold kids rock club meetings in October, November, or December when the meeting rooms are used for other purposes or are too close to holidays.