earth sciences week... bread rock
Recreate the formation of sedimentary rock using left over bread with this experiment from Ross Spearing, Physics Teacher
what you’ll need:
• Four different types of bread, preferably different colours• Very small nonstick saucepan
• A hob
what to do:
Crumble the different types of bread into four different piles. This is your sediment.
Take one colour of bread and put it into the saucepan, making sure that it is packed down really tightly.
Then take a different colour and make a second layer by packing that down really tightly on top of the first. If your bread layer refuses to squish down, try sprinkling each layer with a little water.
Repeat the process until you have four tightly packed layers of bread in the saucepan.
Heat the saucepan with the bread in it over a medium heat for five to ten minutes. The bread should turn hard and black.
Keep a close eye on it, if it starts to smoke, remove the pan from the heat immediately.
When the ten minutes is up, carefully tip the newly formed 'bread rock' out of the saucepan.
Once the ‘bread rock’ has cooled, check out what has happened to the texture of the bread. Carefully cut the bread rock in half, to reveal different layers right through the middle.
what's happening?
Heat and pressure cause the layers of crumbs to fuse together forming a solid 'rock'. Sedimentary rocks, such as sandstone and chalk, form in a similar way – layers of sediment deposited on top of each other by water, weather or other means are joined together by heat and pressure.
Fossils can be found in sedimentary rocks because the remains of animals and plants get sandwiched between the layers of sediment.
more!
Try adding different coloured Smarties or chocolate chips to your layers, to represent fossils.<< Go Back