Minds On

Rocks in our daily lives

Let’s get thinking about where people use rocks and minerals in their lives by matching some pictures to descriptions.

For each description, select the rock or minerals that match!

Pause and Reflect

Pause and reflect

Where might you see rocks and minerals in use in your home or community? Record your answers on paper, digitally, or orally. Be prepared to share your answers.

Action

Future impacts

This learning activity connects new and existing approaches for young scientists to create positive changes in their communities.

Rocks and minerals

In the Minds On activity, you spent time thinking about how rocks and minerals may be used in our daily lives, but what exactly are rocks and minerals?

Rock is a naturally formed solid material composed of one or more minerals, and makes up a large part of the Earth’s crust. A mineral is a naturally occurring, homogeneous, inorganic, solid substance that has a chemical makeup and a structure of crystals.

Take a moment to learn with Carine the Bluecoat scientist in this “Minerals of Everyday” video. As Carine describes rock and minerals, you may wish to record some ideas on paper, digitally, or in another method of your choice.

Pause and Reflect

Pause and reflect

Consider what you observed in the video clip, and respond to the following questions in a method of your choice:

  • In which ways are rocks and minerals similar?
  • In which ways are they different?

Press ‘Hint’ to access some possible responses to the previous questions.

  • Rocks and minerals are both solid and naturally occurring.
  • Rocks could be organic, and made of more than one mineral.
  • Minerals are always inorganic; they have a crystallic structure, and are of a specific formula.

A Venn diagram for rocks and minerals. Rocks can be organic and made of more than one material, while minerals are inorganic, have a crystalline structure, and are of a specific formula. Their similarities are that they are both solid and naturally occurring.

Earlier, you looked at a variety of rocks and minerals, and predicted and checked their uses. Let’s explore what else the Bluecoat scientist has to say about what rocks and minerals are used for.

Rocks and minerals in daily life

Rocks and minerals are naturally occurring, but they also play essential roles in the daily lives of humans.

Press the following tabs to learn more about everyday uses of rocks and minerals!

The walls of buildings often contain a material called drywall. Drywall is made of gypsum, which contains water in its mineral structure. When heated, the water is freed, which provides an important first line of defense against fires!

Pottery is made from clay, which is a mineral. Clay is moldable when wet, but when heated, it becomes solid. Clay is also used to line landfills so that any contaminants present stay contained.

Glass is made from sand, which contains the mineral quartz, soda ash and limestone. These components are melted together at very high temperature to form glass.

Matches have a red tip that we strike on the striking surface to start a flame. The red end is made of several components, the major one being the mineral sulphur, which is also used in fireworks and gunpowder!

Also called garnet paper, sandpaper is made with small grains of garnet, a very hard gemstone, and is used to sand down rough edges of woods and metals.

Have you been jotting notes with your pencil? Would it surprise you to learn that the lead is not lead at all, but graphite? It works well in pencils, as it makes a good, but erasable mark. Ground up graphite is also used in many machines as a lubricant!

Pause and Reflect

Pause and reflect

Take a moment to reflect on these uses of rocks and minerals. Did anything surprise you or confirm what you already knew?

You may wish to record these thoughts on paper, digitally, or orally. If possible, share your ideas with a partner!

Mines and mining

How do we get rocks and minerals from the Earth for our use?

Mining is the process of removing minerals from the Earth. A mine is where mining occurs. There are 2 types of mines:

  • Surface or open-pit mining is used to extract minerals found near the surface of the Earth. It’s the most common mining method worldwide.
  • Underground mines are used when the minerals are located deep beneath the Earth’s surface. Because of the tunneling and structural supports needed, underground mining is more expensive than surface mining.
A surface mine. An underground mine.

Pause and Reflect

Pause and reflect

The aggregate (sand, gravel, clay, and bedrock) industry in Ontario is very important to support the construction of roads, subway tunnels, homes, and other structures, as well as the creation of numerous jobs.

However, to gain access to these aggregates and create surface mines, the following actions are often taken:

  • farmland is taken out of production and/or natural habitats are disrupted
  • the overlaying layers of soils, each layer providing a service needed for growing crops, are pushed back and mixed up
  • various machinery is used to prepare and transport rocks and minerals, resulting in harm on the environment such as sound pollution

Consider what you have explored about the extraction of rocks and minerals, and some of the impacts of mining. Select one positive impact and one negative impact as a result of mining, and describe each example in your own words.

If possible, share your ideas with someone else.

Indigenous geological knowledge

In many Indigenous languages, the names for rocks, the lands, and the waters are described using language that recognizes the spirit that lives within each one.

Rocks are sometimes referred to as Grandfathers to reflect the age and wisdom they carry with them, and because they tell stories of important events throughout history, and are a connection to the ancestors that have walked these lands for millennia.

Just like geologists, Indigenous peoples also learn from rocks, and use their observations to determine which rocks are best to use for different purposes. Some are selected because of their shape, type, or size to be used in ceremonies, or to mark important cultural or sacred sites.

This is a rock made of different minerals. It includes rounded well sorted flint pebbles in a very fine quartz mix.

For example, flint is a rock made of quartz or silicon that is hard and sharp. Nations used flint for many purposes, including arrowheads for hunting, knives for cooking, axes for chopping wood, and as a fire-starter.

Many Nations throughout Ontario also used a softer mineral called hematite to make red ochre paint by grinding the mineral into a fine powder and mixing it with water. These paints were used to create sacred symbols called pictographs on large rocks or cliffs.

Check your understanding!

Rocks and minerals provide us with many important things that we use in our daily lives. We can see positive and negative impacts of extracting these valuable resources, and we need to take a balanced look at resource extraction. We need to clarify our thinking by asking questions to better understand how we can all benefit, including keeping our environment safe.

Consolidation

Rocks and minerals in daily life

You have had an opportunity to explore how humans use rocks and minerals every day. You have also explored mining and its impact–both positive and negative–and examined information about First Nations’ geological knowledges.

Summarize your new understandings in a method of your choice. You may choose to create:

  • an artistic poster
  • a digital presentation with images
  • a written report
  • a video or audio recording

Use the following interactive checklist to organize your summary:

Did I…

Reflection

As you read through these descriptions, which sentence best describes how you are feeling about your understanding of this learning activity? Press the button that is beside this sentence.

I feel…

Now, record your ideas using a voice recorder, speech-to-text, or writing tool.