Observe different classification characteristics and uses of rocks and . Identify different rocks and minerals. Accept all answers. Divide the class into three groups and assign a leader for each group. The groups will rotate through the three stations.
Igneous rocks originate from magma, or liquid rock, from within the earth.
Tremendous heat within the Earth's crust produces the liquid magma. When the magma cools and hardens either underneath or on the Earth's surface, it produces igneous rocks. The rate at which a rock cools from a liquid state to a solid influences its shape and texture, characteristics that help to classify the rock as igneous. In the Salt Lake Valley we find granite in the Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons. Granite is an igneous rock that cools below the earth's surface.