Essential and guiding questions:
- If we are going to create a guide to the types of rocks that can be found on the schoolyard, how should we go about collecting the rocks?
- Do we have enough information from this one rock to create the rock guide? Why or why not?
- How many should we collect? Will one or two be enough? Why or why not? Introduce the notion of a sample and the importance of sample size and the manner in which the sample is collected.
- Could we possibly collect all of the rocks from the schoolyard? If not, will we still have enough information to create a rock guide? Why or why not?
- How can we use some of the rocks to give us a good idea about the rest?
- Where might you find rocks on the schoolyard? Should we collect rocks from some or all of these places? Why?
- What kinds of rocks do you expect to see? What will they look like? Feel like?
- Should we look for only certain kinds of rocks?
- How many rocks are there altogether?
- Which is the biggest rock? The smallest?
- Which rock is in the middle?
- Are there places along the line where there are lots of rocks that look about the same size? Where? How many rocks seem to be that size? What size are most of the rocks?
- How could we decide whether or not these rocks are actually the same size?
- If each one of us were to follow the author’s rules for finding the perfect rock, what would happen?
- What do you think the collection of rocks would look like? Why?
- Would this be a good sample of rocks to study? Why or why not?
- How might following these rules affect our sample?
- Where did you find the rock?
- Were there others around that were like it?
- Describe your rock.
- How big is it?
- How much does it weigh?
- Is it like the rocks that are usually found on the playground? In what way?
