Starburst Rock Cycle Lab Sheets

Our Starburst Rock Cycle Lab Sheets are ideal for teachers of large classrooms and for the homeschool mom who is teaching their own. It wasn’t until several years ago did I even try the Starburst Rock Cycle lab, but at that time I wasn’t needing lab sheets. Fast forward some years and I needed lab sheets to accompany this fun and sweet activity for a class. One thing I really enjoy about teaching a class (big or small) is that I get to see firsthand how the worksheet or activity works and can then make adjustments if necessary. It’s like a recipe, you try it and then make tweaks to perfect it. That is what I did with these lab sheets.

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Materials Needed

Your supply list is easy! You will need the following for each student: paper plate, 3 Starburst, scissors, cupcake liner, Ziploc bag, and access to a microwave. Oh! Don’t forget the printed lab sheets at the bottom of this post!

Review the Rock Cycle

The Starburst Rock Cycle Lab is ideal to implement after you and your students have spent some time learning about the topic. My students and I completed textbook reading, comprehension questions, and watched a collection of 5 videos that summarized the three different types of rocks, the difference between rocks and minerals, and the rock cycle. You can check out the video notes PDF we used and the videos here!

Let’s get started! The lab sheets start off with a quick summary of the rock cycle and a general description of how each type of rock forms. For those students who struggle recalling learned information, the brief summary helps them to answer lab questions.

Sediments

Students will start off by creating sediments. The 3 Starburst candies represent rocks. Students will emulate the weathering and erosion process by cutting the rocks into sediments (broken down smaller pieces of rock) using scissors.

Sedimentary Rock

It isn’t hard to change your sediments to sedimentary rock. Just add a little compaction and cementation. This is easy with Starburst candies. Take the sediments in your hand and squeeze gently until the sediments gel together. This mimics the process of compaction and cementation that you would likely find at the bottom of rivers and oceans.

Metamorphic Rock

To change a sedimentary rock into a metamorphic one, just add heat and pressure. We put the sedimentary Starburst rock into a Ziploc bag and begin the process of adding heat from our hands and pressure from kneading. I encourage my students to put a textbook on top of it and press down too. Encourage your students to add heat and pressure for at least 3 minutes. It takes time to transform the sedimentary form into metamorphic.

Magma

Before any rock can turn into an igneous rock, it must melt back into magma first. So, we put our metamorphic Starburst rock into a cupcake liner and while on a plate, put it in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Depending on your microwave, you may need to stop it prior to the full 30 seconds. Once it begins to bubble, you can stop heating it. Once you pull it out of the microwave, I encourage my students to make observations. Next, we put it in the freezer or refrigerator.

Igneous Rock

It doesn’t take long for the magma to solidify and turn into an igneous rock. How quickly the magma or lava cools determines its texture. Smooth, glassy texture cooled quickly. Rough and more course grained texture cooled much slower.

Rock Cycle Diagram Comprehension Worksheet

I like to use this diagram worksheet after the Starburst Rock Cycle Lab since it solidifies what they have learned and done in the hands-on lab. I also appreciate the fact that my students have a copy of the rock cycle with the processes in their notebook.