Category: Rock Specimens

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BYO: Build Your Own rock kits

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Too often I have seen ‘complete’ rock kits for sale that either have too many different samples or not enough.  To make matters worse the samples are too small and too easily lost or broken or just not big enough to see the detail you need to teach from.

Then there is the problem of replacement parts of the kits.  Usually you have to buy another whole kit just to replace a few pieces that are missing here and there.

Enter ROCKHOUNDZ  and the BYO Rock Kit.  Don’t reinvent the wheel preparing teaching material to suit a kit that someone else put together for you.  BYO – Build Your Own kit that suits the content you have prepared for the classroom.  If you lose a piece just replace that piece.  If you want to add a piece then add just that piece.

And you can buy from Rockhoundz knowing that we can tell you what you need to know to add to your content – where did it come from?  how old is it?  These are the specialised details that we include with your samples to help you in the classroom.

And just like with the obsidian – if you send us a special request we will be like a dog at a bone until we dig up a decent sample for you.
See you round the ridges,
Angus

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Rock star: Obsidian

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Did you know that most of the obsidian you see for sale is actually fake?  That’s the reason it has taken us so long to find some that we are willing to have in the shop.

Some of the newest rock money can buy, this obsidian is only 129 years old from the Mt Tarawera volcanic eruption in June 1886 in the Bay of Plenty Region, New Zealand.  Formed at the margins of rhyolitic flows it also contains pumice and perlite inclusions formed by contact with groundwater.

In the classroom, explore differences in structure compared to other rocks from felsic lava such as pumice.

Colour: black to black/green

Fracture: conchoidal

Mohs hardness :5-6

This obsidian has been collected for us by a geologist in New Zealand, so we will guarantee that it is the real deal and absolutely not fake so it has the Angus Seal of Approval

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Is this a Houndz tooth I see before me?

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I know what I want this to be.  I really, really, really want it to be a fossilised dinosaur tooth.

It won’t be because I never find anything cool.  Except for that one time in Cifton – but I had a lot of paleontologists pointing me in the right direction and then Scott Hocknell took it away and I never saw it again.

I found this when I was sorting a sample of our rocks from Roma.  They are an assortment from a lot of different deposits that have been washed down a river and there are bits of petrified wood, some chert, quartzite, sandstone, something that feels ‘soapy’ that needs to be identified and lots of other bits and pieces as well.

roma sorted

They’re an excellent sample to have for showing erosion of different types of rocks.  A lot of the pieces have been broken as well so you get a fresh face of the sample to compare with the weathered portion.  Becuase they all come from the same deposit now they are a good example of how sediments are transported by water and how conglomerate rock can be formed of rocks from very different geological formations.

They would be great for primary school kids who just like to feel and examine different rocks as well as interesting samples for a stereomicroscope session. I think I’m really onto something there because when our friend Vivi pinned this pin to Pinterest last week and it grabbed attention really quickly from homeschoolers and teachers.

They also lend themselves to sorting and classifying experiments.  Rock collections like these are a good introduction for biological classification lessons and good practice at identifying similar traits in different objects.

Keep an eye out here for activities using this sample.  In the meantime you’ll be happy to know they have the Angus Seal of Approval.