3 mistakes learners make with rocks and the rock cycle, each one named and explained.
How a rock formed is what names it, not what it looks like.
Magnetic or soluble is chosen as one of the three rock types.
It is a real word about rocks, and the three real types are not securely known.
Question. The three rock types
A common answer. magnetic
The answer. igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic
Why. Magnetic describes what a rock does, not how it formed.
Learn the three as a closed list. Anything outside it is not an option.
Igneous or metamorphic is given for rock formed from layers of sediment.
Three names, three processes, and nothing about the names says which is which.
Question. Rock formed from layers of sediment squashed over time
A common answer. igneous
The answer. sedimentary
Why. Sedimentary is named directly after sediment.
Each name describes its own process once you hear the root inside it.
Sedimentary rock is said to form before the sediment it is made of.
Rock is the more substantial thing, so it feels like the starting point.
Question. Which forms first, sediment or sedimentary rock
A common answer. sedimentary rock
The answer. sediment, which is then compacted and cemented into rock
Why. You cannot compact something that does not exist yet.
Every step of the rock cycle has an input. Name the input and the order fixes itself.
WAJD spots these patterns in your child's answers and names the one behind their wrong answers, instead of just marking them wrong.