Escape from Everest – Mount Everest – Rocks & Minerals

Topic: Rocks and Minerals

Escape from Everest is a story-driven online adventure where students investigate a dangerous geological disturbance inside Mount Everest. To stabilize the mountain, explorers must use rocks and minerals knowledge to make smart choices and move through three high-action mission zones.

Included free resources: the interactive online adventure, printable knowledge and trading cards, and printable completion certificates with a reward code area. Teachers can print the materials for classroom use, then hand out certificates at the end to celebrate mission success and send the reward code home.

Objective

Students will explain how minerals form, identify characteristics used to classify minerals, and describe how rocks change through the rock cycle and plate tectonics.

Time

30 to 45 minutes (plus optional DIY excavation extension).

Materials

• Student devices (1 per student or 1 per pair)
• Printed trading or knowledge cards (optional but recommended)
• Pencils for writing the recovery code
• Printed completion certificates (for the end)

Prep

• Open the Genially adventure and test audio/links.
• Print cards and certificates (optional).
• Decide: students cut cards, or pre-cut ahead of time.

Procedure (Traditional Format)

1. Engage (5 min): Ask: “What forces build mountains?” and “What’s the difference between a rock and a mineral?”
2. Explore (20 to 30 min): Students complete the online mission. They answer 9 questions (3 per zone) and record the code letters revealed after each zone.
3. Explain (5 min): Quick debrief: review 2 to 3 questions students found challenging and why the correct answers make sense.
4. Elaborate (optional 15 to 30 min): Run the DIY excavation activity and have students classify their “specimen” using observation and hardness testing (simple scratch test).
5. Evaluate (3 to 5 min): Students summarize: one mineral property they used, one rock type they can explain, and one thing plate tectonics does.
6. Closure: Hand out the completion certificate and celebrate mission success.

Differentiation

• Pair readers with strong readers; allow partner discussion before answers.
• Use printed cards as “hint tools” for students who need support.
• Challenge extension: students explain how Everest can still be rising today.

Printing: Print the trading or knowledge cards and certificates ahead of time. You can pre-cut cards for speed, or have students cut them as a quick warm-up activity.

Devices: Best experience is 1 device per student or pair. Small groups also work well if students discuss and agree on answers together.

End-of-mission moment: When students complete the final recovery code check, celebrate the class win and hand out the printable completion certificate. Students write their name and record the reward code to take home.

• Mineral: A naturally occurring, non-living solid with a specific chemical makeup.
• Igneous Rock: Rock formed when melted rock cools and hardens.
• Sedimentary Rock: Rock formed when layers of sediment build up and press together over time.
• Metamorphic Rock: Rock changed by heat and pressure without melting.
• Rock Cycle: The process that shows how igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks can change into one another over time.
• Crystal: A solid with a repeating pattern formed as minerals grow.
• Mohs Hardness Scale: A scale that ranks minerals by how easily they scratch.
• Mineral Identification: Using properties like color, hardness, and crystal shape to tell minerals apart.
• Plate Tectonics: The movement of Earth’s plates that shapes land and can cause earthquakes and mountains.

Use these as a quick review, exit ticket prompts, or answer key support.

1. Which statement best describes a mineral?
   Answer: A naturally occurring, non-living solid with its own chemical makeup.
   Common incorrect: Any rock you find outside.
2. How do igneous rocks form?
   Answer: When melted rock cools and hardens into solid stone.
   Common incorrect: When layers of sediment press together over time.
3. What causes sedimentary rock to form?
   Answer: Layers of sediment build up and pressure presses them into rock.
   Common incorrect: Melted rock erupts and hardens instantly.
4. What makes a metamorphic rock metamorphic?
   Answer: Heat and pressure change the rock without melting it.
   Common incorrect: The rock melts completely and becomes magma.
5. What does the rock cycle show?
   Answer: Rocks can change between types over time and the types are connected.
   Common incorrect: Rocks stay the same type forever once formed.
6. Why do crystals often have repeating shapes or patterns?
   Answer: Their atoms arrange in repeating patterns as the mineral grows.
   Common incorrect: Wind carves them into perfect shapes.
7. On the Mohs hardness scale, what is true?
   Answer: Harder minerals can scratch softer minerals.
   Common incorrect: Softer minerals always scratch harder minerals.
8. Which set of traits helps identify a mineral?
   Answer: Color, hardness, and crystal shape.
   Common incorrect: Size, temperature, and smell.
9. How did Mount Everest form?
   Answer: Two massive tectonic plates collided and pushed land upward.
   Common incorrect: A volcano built Everest from lava layers.

• Why do some rocks form deep underground while others form at Earth’s surface?
• How could the same rock become a different type of rock later in the rock cycle?
• Why might two minerals look similar but still be different?
• What evidence would you look for to tell if an area was shaped by plate movement?

• Lighting: Dim lights or use lamps to create a “cave mission” feel.
• Sound: Play low wind, mountain storm, or “expedition” background audio.
• Zones: Label three areas of the room as mission zones and let students “move” after each zone.
• Props: Clipboards, ropes, “basecamp” sign, and caution tape for “unstable zones.”
• Gear check: Start with a 30-second “expedition briefing” before the Genially begins.

Goal: Give students a hands-on “dig” experience that matches the adventure theme using simple classroom materials.

Materials

• Plaster of Paris
• Sand (or fine dirt)
• Paper cups or silicone molds
• Tumbled stones (recommended), creek stones, gravel, or donated rocks
• Plastic spoons, craft sticks, old toothbrushes (for excavation)
• Optional: magnifiers and a basic “scratch test” item (penny or paperclip)

Directions

1. Place 1 to 2 stones in each cup or mold.
2. Mix plaster of Paris with sand (about half and half) and add water until it’s pourable like thick pancake batter.
3. Pour the mix over the stones until covered. Tap gently to remove air bubbles.
4. Let harden 30 to 60 minutes (or overnight for best results).
5. Students excavate using spoons and craft sticks, then brush away dust to reveal the specimen.

Tips & Tricks

• Tumbled stones work great and look “treasure-like” even if you don’t have real mineral kits.
• Ask families for donations: creek stones, gravel, landscaping rocks, or spare tumbled stones often show up fast.
• If plaster is too hard, increase sand slightly or use less plaster next batch.
• Wrap clean-up: use trays or paper plates under each dig to control dust.

Common NGSS alignments for this adventure (grades 3–5):

• 4-ESS1-1: Identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils to support explanations about changes in landscapes over time.
• 4-ESS2-1: Make observations and measurements to provide evidence of weathering and erosion effects (optional tie-in through mountain environments).
• 4-ESS2-2: Analyze and interpret data from maps to describe patterns of Earth’s features (mountain building context).
• 5-ESS2-1: Develop a model to describe interactions of Earth systems (links to rock cycle and plate movement).

Note: Specific alignment can vary by grade level and how you use the extension activities.

Teacher links go here: Add your PDF links for printable trading/knowledge cards and completion certificates.

• Download: Printable Trading Cards (PDF)
• Download: Completion Certificates with Reward Code (PDF)

Want free adventure kits for every student in your classroom? Excavating Adventures offers a simple PTA and PTO program that can provide full kits at no cost through easy online fundraising with no inventory and no paperwork.

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