Sharing Geology with 4th Graders at Mabel Padgett School

The tragic events of last Friday in Newtown, Connecticut hold special meaning to me. Just three days prior, I visited an elementary school in Litchfield Park, Arizona to lecture about geology, erosion, and the rock cycle. I was a bit miffed when the secretary at the front desk asked me for my drivers license, so that she could copy it before admitting to the grounds. Now I know why.

The 4th graders in Mrs. Mahoney's class were quite knowledgeable about geology already. I was astounded really. Three other 4th grade classes were also admitted to my talk. Here are a few pictures of the day.

My invitation to the class came from none other than my grandson, Jacob Lynch. I have known Jacob since he was two years old and remember well the first time we took him to the Grand Canyon. We blindfolded him and led him carefully up to the edge. Then we pulled the blindfold off so that he could see the canyon spectacularly in one grand sweep for the first time. He has been an ace geologist and paleontologist ever since.

Here I am with Mrs. Mahoney answering questions in the class. All of these students have been studying the rock cycle, erosion and rocks the whole semester and they were well prepared to meet a real geologist.

I brought some rock samples for the students to inspect. They looked at and held granite, many kinds of schist (even one speciment with garnets in it!), sandstone, and limestone fossils.

It was so much fun to do this and Jacob was really jazzed to share his own personal geologist with the rest of his class.