Unit 02 · Minerals & Rocks (the rock cycle)
This unit builds from the mineral up to the rock and back around again: the physical properties — streak, hardness, luster, cleavage — that let you name a mineral by testing it rather than guessing, the three great rock families and how each one forms, and the rock cycle that can turn any rock into any other given enough heat, pressure, and time. Mastery means you can read a rock as a record of the processes that made it, not a fixed object to memorize.
| Criterion | Not yet | Approaching | Mastered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mineral properties & tests | Cannot use streak, hardness, luster, or cleavage to tell one mineral from another. | Runs the tests but reads them inconsistently or names the wrong mineral. | Uses streak, hardness, luster, cleavage, and the acid test together to identify a mineral and justify each call. |
| The three rock families | Cannot sort a specimen into igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic. | Names the families but cannot say how each one forms. | Classifies a rock into its family and explains the process — cooling, cementing, or heat and pressure — that produced it. |
| The rock cycle | Thinks rocks are permanent and unchanging. | Recites the cycle as a loop but cannot trace a real pathway. | Traces how any rock can become any other through melting, weathering, deposition, and metamorphism, with time and energy as the drivers. |
| Minerals vs. rocks | Uses “rock” and “mineral” interchangeably. | Defines each but cannot point to the minerals inside a rock. | Distinguishes a mineral (one composition, ordered structure) from a rock (an aggregate of minerals) and reads a rock's mineral makeup. |
| Lab technique (mineral & rock ID) | Skips the tests or handles the streak plate and acid carelessly. | Runs the tests but records the results loosely or unsafely. | Performs streak, hardness, luster, and acid tests cleanly and safely, logging each result to defend an identification. |
| Integration (cross-domain) | Treats the science as isolated facts; makes no cross-domain connection. | Names a link to history, reading, or writing but cannot defend why it matters. | Connects the unit to its anchor across History · Reading · Writing (plus chosen electives) and defends why the connection matters. |
“This one leaves a reddish-brown streak, scratches glass, and has a metallic luster — that’s hematite, an iron ore. And the rock it came from won’t stay a rock forever: bury it deep enough and it can melt and start over as something igneous. Steno worked out that the bottom layer is the oldest, and that’s still how we read a road cut.”
“A rock is just a rock — it’s been that way forever. Minerals and rocks are the same thing, aren’t they? I’d guess the name from the color.”
You demonstrate this unit through hands-on mineral and rock identification — streak, hardness, luster, and the acid test — plus short oral checks where you reason from the evidence aloud — not a multiple-choice test. A criterion counts as mastered only when you can both run the test and justify the identification behind it. Mastery is demonstrated, not awarded.
A 5-page clipboard packet — unit overview, key terms, the mastery rubric, anchor examples, and a score sheet you can print and grade against.