Rock experts roll into school

“Geologists, attention please.”

With those words, students in Jessi Thompson’s fourth-grade class began learning about crystals, courtesy of a Pacific Science Center visit to Brentwood Elementary School.

After examining geodes, which one student described as looking like “endless caves filled with treasure,” the class inspected a variety of crystals including fool’s gold, garnet and rose quartz.

The students also grew their own crystals from dissolved Epsom salts.

“I talk about growing crystals, but are crystals alive?” asked Pacific Science Center instructor Sam Chamberlain.

“No,” the students answered in unison.

The Science on Wheels program, of the Seattle-based Pacific Science Center, visits public and private schools statewide, teaching students about topics such as the human body, geology and the environment.

The Rock and Roll van arrived Tuesday at Brentwood in the Mead School District for a two-day trip, and three instructors will visit each class, as well as provide other learning opportunities for students and staff.

Students from many Brentwood classrooms assembled in the gymnasium earlier in the day to learn about rocks, tectonic plates, earthquakes and volcanoes.

Instructors joked about the plates of the Earth being like dinner plates before explaining that they are larger than continents and move very slowly.

The North American plate moves just 4 centimeters a year.

“That’s about how fast your fingernails grow,” Chamberlain said.

Interactive displays in the library taught students about ground movement, radioactive rocks and fossils.

Children handled crystals and sand mazes, examined models showing the layers of the Earth, and learned about the effects of earthquakes.

Bayley Hayett, a 7-year-old first-grader, jumped high in the air and stomped as hard as she could to make a seismograph move.

“This is fun,” she said, echoing one of the rules of the Pacific Science Center’s program: Have a good time.