Investigating Edinburgh's Geological Past Session 1: Rock Descriptions

‘Investigating Edinburgh’s Geological Past’ is created for learners aged 12-14 at the S2 level from the University of Edinburgh’s GeoScience Outreach Course. It introduces basic ideas of geology, such as geological time, rocks and fossils, and geological skills. It consists of five lessons (sessions) including a field trip to Holyrood Park for the Session 3, and the Session 5 can be taught as a standalone lesson as well. Throughout the five sessions, learners are encouraged to explore the rich geological heritage of Edinburgh and to develop a range of skills to determine what the past environment of Edinburgh was like. The resource has been created as an Interdisciplinary Learning (IDL) resource, primarily between Geography and Science with relevant English skills. It will encourage students to integrate the knowledge and skills they have learnt from different subjects and use them to approach a subject that may be new to them.

This session introduces three different rock types and their formation to students, followed by a hands-on activity in observing and describing rocks. The pack includes a set of slides in Powerpoint and PDF formats and worksheets in Word.docx and PDF formats, along with a Teacher’s guide to help teachers run a class with the slides.

Links to the accompanying sessions:
One: Rock Descriptions (this session): Teaching and demonstration of three different rock types and their formation, followed by a hands-on activity in describing rocks.
Two: Carboniferous Edinburgh and Fieldwork Preparation: Exploring the Carboniferous environment using BGS poster; Preparation for the field trip by writing aims and hypothesis and practising field sketches.
Three: Holyrood Park Field Trip: Field trip to Holyrood Park to visit Camstone Quarry (Sandstones and past environments) and The Dasses (intrusive igneous rocks, cooling rates and erosion).
Four: Reconstructing Past Environments: Group work using Evidence Packs and field trip observations to determine what the environment during the Carboniferous period was like. Students to write a postcard to consolidate this knowledge as a picture and in text.
Five: Edinburgh in 100 years’ Time: Consideration of different development pressures on Holyrood Park in the future. Students work in groups to present a proposed development.

Experiences and Outcomes of this session:
SCN3-17a: Through evaluation of a range of data, I can describe the formation, characteristics and uses of soils, minerals and basic types of rocks.

‘Investigating Edinburgh’s Geological Past’ was created by Jenny Ridout, adapted into an OER by Mayu Ishimoto. The resource is available under a Creative Commons AttributionShareAlike 4.0 license unless otherwise stated.

Header Image Attribution: Arthur’s Seat by Jenny Ridout, 2023, CC BY-SA.