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New York City
August 2002

Become a Rock Detective!
By Joan K. Ferguson

Oh, no!!! Rocks! It’s time to study rocks! I’ve always loved rocks, but the children are all going to bring in their rock collections, display them all over the room, and they’re going to expect me to identify them! Augh!!! That was how it was when I started teaching in 1965. We’ve come a long way!

Today Earth Science is taught at all levels. The curricula are sophisticated and integrated into the entire educational experience, but challenges remain for the teacher who hasn’t had a sufficiently rigorous course in geology. Available materials often rely on text and media, not tactile experience. We teach good hard and hopefully relevant science, but where is the tactile experience that most children need? There is a huge gap between the curriculum and the rocks! Rock Detective Geoscience Education is a lifeline. It mentors the teacher, and it is the hands-on segue to earth science concepts.

Rock Detective was written and developed by Ruth Deike. Now retired, she spent her career as a geologist with the US Geological Survey. She is a scientist. The scientific information is first rate and aimed at expanding the students’ and teachers’ understanding, not just learning facts for a test. Ruth, using her own enthusiasm as a vehicle for presenting earth science information, lets the rocks tell their own stories as the students solve mysteries while examining the rock samples.

Rock Detective is hands-on. The samples are a good size, big enough to provide heft in the hand! No longer do we have to rely on the boxes of rock samples from museum shops. The Rock Detective samples, often more than one to a mystery, are “real” rocks!

The Rock Detective program is flexible. It can be used with the entire class, as is suggested in the manual, individually as a warm up as students enter the classroom, and in small groups with the teacher or an aide. I usually used it in small groups with parent aides. The parents panicked when I first asked them to work with a geology activity, but by the time they had finished working with the children, they were so excited about what they had learned, they begged to do it again on their next visit to the classroom!

Are you teaching in Spanish? Professionally translated by South American and Puerto Rican geologists, the Rock Detective program (both mysteries and resource materials) is now available in Spanish through eighth grade. Field tested in Puerto Rico, both students and teachers were delighted!

The Rock Detective program is exciting for both teachers and students of all ages. Try it! You’ll like it, and you’ll certainly learn to love earth science. The children will, too!

Joan K. Ferguson is President of Rock Detective Geoscience Education, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. A retired teacher, she receives no payment from the organization and, in fact, helps support it. She is involved with Rock Detective because she used it extensively in her classroom and knows how effective and child-friendly and teacher-friendly it is! For more information see the Rock Detective web site at www.rockdetective.org, or call Ruth at (207)737-4612.#

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Education Update, Inc., P.O. Box 20005, New York, NY 10001.
Tel: (212) 481-5519. Fax: (212) 481-3919.Email: ednews1@aol.com.
All material is copyrighted and may not be printed without express consent of the publisher. © 2002.


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