Paraffin Rock Cycle

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Home : 2003 : October : 25

Paraffin Rock Cycle
By JohnV

This is a really fun activity, but it can be very messy. I wouldn't do it at all if you have carpets.

Materials:

-- large amounts of paraffin
-- some broken/used crayons (for coloring)
-- small containers (we used
restaurant-style portion cups from Sam's club)
-- small cheese graters (or pieces of metal window screen with taped edges for safety)
-- hot plates
-- large pots for heating water (big enough to put coffee cans into)
-- coffee cans for melting parafin
Procedure:
1. Melt the paraffin in the coffee cans. Do this in a double-boiler method by putting the cans into a hot

water bath. Don't melt the paraffin over direct heat.
2. Color the melted paraffin with a few crayons.
3. The melted paraffin is "magma" and "lava" in the rock cycle. Pour some for each student. It will cool and harden into "igneous rock".
4. The "igneous rocks" can be "weathered" by breaking them and grating them into "sediments".
5. Put the "sediments" in layers (students can trade colors with each other) in the cups to show "deposition of sediments". Packing the "sediments" down into the cups very firmly with the warmth of the hand will cause them to turn into "sedimentary rock". These "rocks" are very crumbly and fragile.
6. The "sedimentary rocks" and other types of "rocks" can then be heated in the water bath for a few seconds at a time (avoid completely re-melting them) and then packed some more to form "metamorphic rocks".
7. Cross-links across the rock cycle can be illustrated by "weathering" the "sedimentary" and "metamorphic" rocks and repacking them.
8. In the end, the whole mess can be put back into the cans and re-melted to show the completion of the cycle.

I hope I have been clear enough for you to use this if you want. It is enormous fun, but if poorly contained it could cause you to lose favor with your custodians.

John