Junior Activities

“Our Greatest Natural Resource is in the minds of our Children”

–Walter Ellas Disney

Join us!

Junior Rockhound Meetings

Junior in person meetings are the

third Tuesday of every month from 7pm-8pm.

Everyone is welcome!

Questions? Contact Jim Urbaniak by email nygiants1931@yahoo.com

or rockhound@clackamettegem.org

Visit the home page, "Up Coming Events", for updated information.

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To give our Juniors more opportunities to explore geology and the lapidary arts, the Clackamette Club is always looking for new Junior participants and visitors are ALWAYS welcome!

Our Juniors have an instruction time at each of the regular club meetings. Juniors meet separately in the classroom next to the regular meeting room (Located in Kraxburger Hall of the basement of The Zion Lutheran Church in Oregon City). The Junior’s activity program begins shortly after the regular meeting begins at 7pm and lasts for approximately one hour. The Juniors program releases at 8 pm in order to accommodate early bedtimes. Juniors always are welcome to stay for the full duration of the regular meeting with parent or guardian.

So far this year the Juniors have learned:

The story and history of how the Thunderegg became the official Oregon state rock

The Oregon state gem stone: Sunstone

The Oregon state fossil: Metasequoia

The Oregon state rock: Thunderegg

3 Rock types rock Identification of as well as for-mation characteristics of each:

1. Igneous

2. Metamorphic

3. Sedimentary

An introduction to Gemstone, Mineral and Rock Identification.

The juniors will also spend part of the hour designing the layout of a Jr's display case for the club’s annual show in October.

Jim Urbaniak is our Juniors Program leader. Jim has extensive experience as a teacher, speaker, and geology field trip leader throughout Oregon and Washington. He has taught field geology at Camp Hancock-Hancock Field Station and has lectured on topics including the Missoula Floods. In addition, he is the author of more than 60 earth science articles.

Jim is very enthusiastic about teaching junior’s geology, earth science, and lapidary arts to our juniors.

Juniors Activity

Here is an example of what juniors learn about rocks and earth science.

January: What is a Rock? Rocks have different characteristics that set them apart from others. We will be learning the properties of rocks such as slate, marble, chalk, granite and pumice. Which rocks split? Do any of these rocks float?

Photo by selftution.com

February: What is definition of Mineral and Rock? What is the difference between a Rock and a Mineral? Looking at Core Samples. How do Core Samples help us study history?

Short Video: Intro to 3 types of Rocks

Photo by Theresa VanHook Pinterest

March: How many naturally occurring minerals are there in the world?

Book by Baby Professor

April: We will study the three main types of rocks: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic.

Photo by quizlet

May: Intro to Rock Identification. Study various ways by which we can identify minerals, including color, crystal shape, luster, cleavage, and hardness. Mini Rock ID quiz

Photo by lizzadromuseum.org

June: How Hard is Hard? This particular activity focuses on hardness and introducing the Mohs Scale of Hardness and Streak Testing. Bill Nye the Science Guy Video