Summary
Table of Contents

After teaching a unit about rocks and minerals, students are challenged with picking a site for a tunnel, drilling through a mountain with clay, reinforcing the hole to create a tunnel, and then testing their design. Students will also estimate and calculate the amount of time it takes them to drill.

Learning Goals

The students will identify rocks into the three main groups of how they are formed.
The students will classify rocks based on their properties.
The students will determine the best site to build a tunnel, based on the properties of the site listed.
The students will create, communicate, collaborate, and critically think about how to build a tunnel through a mountain.
The students will estimate how long it will take for them to drill through their half of the mountain.
The students will come up with two ways to “drill” through the mountain and draw the conclusion of which method worked best.
The students will design a tunnel through the mountain that will be able to withstand weather, weight, and affect the landscape of the mountain minimally.
The students will determine what they should do with the raw materials that they took out of the mountain.