Labs & Activities

These labs & activities are available for download to use in your classroom with your students. The following table shows which grade level TEKS each activity has been correlated with. Please note that almost all the activities can be modified to meet TEKS for other grade levels.

Actividad	Resumen de la actividad	Asignaturas	Niveles de grado
Guía para Acompañar el Tour	A guide for teachers detailing the entire Discovery Tour at Natural Bridge Caverns.	Ciencia	TODO
Clasificación de esclusas	Students will use their findings from their bags of mining rough to group the rocks based on their properties and characteristics.	Ciencia	K-1
Los murciélagos necesitan una cueva	Students will play a game to simulate how human impact can affect the habitat of bats.	Science & English	K-2
Sumidero en una taza	Students will learn how sinkholes form as well as the impact humans can have on the groundwater supply.	Ciencia	K-8
Pistas del pasado	Students will simulate the work of archaeologists as they look for artifacts to describe the types of communities that different prehistoric groups lived in.	Social Studies & Archaeology	2-8
rocas en movimiento	Students will physically manipulate clay models to demonstrate changes in the Earth’s crust.	Ciencia	3-8
Análisis de tipos de suelo	Students will compare the properties of different soil types including texture, particle size, and the amount of time it takes for water to move through the different soil types.	Ciencia	4
Modelando el Ciclo de las Rocas	Students will use crayons to model the processes that create igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rock.	Ciencia	4-7
rocas que desaparecen	Students will drip vinegar onto rocks to demonstrate the weathering effect of a weak acid on limestone.	Ciencia	4-8
Rocas y minerales	Students will observe rock and mineral samples to learn about the basic properties of minerals and the three different types of rocks.	Ciencia	4-8
fregadero secreto	Students will work together as city planners to design a community. They must take into account the needs of community members, businesses and the environmental impact on the land itself.	Science & Social Studies	6-8
Análisis de aguas subterráneas	Students will compare the properties of different soil types including texture and particle size and the amount of time it takes for water to move through the different soil types. Students will relate the filtration rates to pollution and learn about aquifers and the impact humans can have on them.	Ciencia	7
Creación de un mapa topográfico	Students will use clay models of a landscape to create a topographical map.	Ciencia	8
Cave Age Formation Estimation	Students will investigate actual growth rates of two flowstone formations—one from Inner Space Cavern and one from Natural Bridge Caverns. Students will graph differences in growth rates for each formation to explore variations in past climates. They will then estimate the size of each formation using a scaled photograph. Combining the formation’s size and the average growth rate, they will predict the age of the entire formation; such age estimation will provide a better understanding of the dissolution and deposition processes within a karst environment.	Science & Math	8 & Earth Systems