Museum in a Box - Rocks

Boxes are currently available each school term for set loan periods of three weeks. Museum in a Box can be sent to and collected from any educational institution within New South Wales.

The Rocks box is a resource designed specifically for Early Childhood.

The materials in the box have been carefully chosen to support both a factual approach to rocks, as well as to spark creative, imaginative responses to them.

The box includes eye-catching minerals, colourful polished stones and samples of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. There is also a model volcano that children can 'erupt' and a mini rock tumbler for creating their own polished stones.

Box Contents:

• A selection of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks
• A panel explaining how rocks are made, referring to the ways these three groups of rocks are formed
• A box containing samples of minerals and the rocks that are formed from them
• A panel explaining what minerals are and that rocks are made from various combinations of minerals
• A panel that shows which minerals make up which rocks
• A selection of attractive mineral crystals
• 30 colourful polished stones
• A fossil shell, and the same type of fossil shell cut in half so you can see what it looks like inside. Some shale/slate with fossil leaves in it
• A foam 'Earth Ball' which represents a globe of the earth. The ball can be taken apart to show the inner core, outer core and crust of the earth
• A mini volcano model that can be used to demonstrate volcanic eruptions
• A small children's rock tumbler that can be used to polish stones (supplies are provided with the box)
• A selection of books, both factual and more imaginative

 

You can also follow Museum in a Box on Twitter

Karen Player , Manager Museum Outreach
Last Updated: 4 May 2010