Lesson · Grade 5 · Science
The Rock Cycle: Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic
- Grade 5
- Science
- 1 min 21 s
- British Columbia
- BC5-SC-15
One loop diagram builds up step by step: magma cools into igneous rock, weathering and erosion break it into sediment that settles in layers, the layers are pressed and cemented into sedimentary rock, heat and pressure make metamorphic rock, and melting turns it back into magma. A dashed shortcut arrow and a slow dot travelling round the loop show that rocks can skip steps and that most changes take thousands of years or more, and the video ends on the recap that rocks keep changing from one type to another in the rock cycle.
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In one sentence
The question this lesson answers
Rocks seem to last forever, but can they change?
There are three main types of rock: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic.
Transcript
What the lesson says
Rocks seem to last forever, but can they change?
There are three main types of rock: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic.
Deep underground, some places have hot melted rock called magma.
When magma cools, it hardens into igneous rock.
At the surface, weathering slowly breaks rock into smaller pieces.
Erosion carries the pieces away, often in moving water.
These pieces are called sediment, and they settle in layers.
Over a long time, the layers are pressed and cemented into sedimentary rock.
Deep underground, heat and pressure can change rock into metamorphic rock without melting it.
If rock gets hot enough, it melts into magma.
The magma can cool again, so rocks go round and round in the rock cycle.
Rocks can take shortcuts too, like igneous rock changing straight into metamorphic rock.
Most of these changes are very slow and take thousands of years or more.
In the rock cycle, rocks change from one type to another, again and again.
Curriculum
Where this fits
- British Columbia, Grade 5
Science, Earth science: the rock cycleBC5-SC-15
The outcomes and strands follow the British Columbia curriculum.
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