Lesson video

Hello, everyone, how are you doing today?

I hope you're feeling really good.

My name is Miss Afzal and I'll be your teacher for this lesson.

I'm feeling very pleased about that, because today we're going to continue looking at rocks, which I think are so interesting.

In particular, today we're gonna be looking at permeability in rocks.

Hmm, I wonder if you've heard of that word before?

Permeability.

Don't worry, even if you haven't, we are going to be exploring it and in fact, we're gonna be exploring it in a very practical way today.

So I hope that will be interesting for you.

So if you're ready with some energy, some focus, some enthusiasm, let's begin our lesson on impermeability in rocks.

The outcome for today's lesson is I can compare and group different rocks by testing their permeability.

I hope that sounds interesting to you.

We have some keywords in our lesson.

Let's go through them one at a time.

My turn, your turn and afterwards we can find out what these keywords mean.

First of all, we have permeability.

Good to hear it.

Rock.

Permeable.

Impermeable.

It was great to hear those keywords.

Let me go through them one more time.

We have permeability, rock, permeable and impermeable.

So what do these keywords mean?

Let's find out.

Permeability is the ability of a substance to allow liquids like water to pass through it.

Rock, this is a solid material that occurs naturally in Earth.

If a material is permeable, it will allow liquids and gases to go through it.

If a substance is impermeable, it will not allow water to pass through it.

So these are our keywords.

Permeability, rock, permeable and impermeable.

Pause here and share with someone, have you heard of any of these words before?

Thanks for sharing.

These words I want for us to look out for, listen out for and think carefully about.

They'll be coming up in our lesson today.

Our lesson is called, "Physical Properties of Rocks, Permeability", and it has two learning cycles.

First of all, permeable rocks and next, grouping rocks by permeability.

Let's begin by exploring permeable rocks.

Here's Aisha and Aisha is interested in the physical properties of different materials.

Do you know what physical properties are?

Pause here and share with someone.

What do you think?

Thanks for sharing.

Physical properties are features which can be observed from the way an object looks or feels or can be measured.

Aisha has observed that the material used to make the roof of her house has been letting water through.

She wonders if this is a physical property of the material.

Hmm, what do you think?

Pause here and share with someone.

Thanks for sharing your ideas.

We are going to find out more about this.

Here's Aisha, "I wonder why water has been leaking through the roof of our house.

We have to catch the drops in a bucket.

" Oh my goodness, look at that bucket full of drops of water coming through Aisha's roof.

And here's Izzy, "When we had some slates blow off our roof in the wind, we had a leak too.

" Uh-oh.

And Andeep, "I think it's something to do with the permeability of materials, but I don't really know what that means.

" Stick around, Andeep, we're gonna find out.

Do you know what permeability means?

Pause here and share with someone, can you remember?

It was one of our keywords.

Thanks for sharing what you remember.

The permeability of a material tells us if it allows liquid such as water to pass through it.

So here we've got a water dropper, some material and then we can see water is passing through the material.

So that means this material is permeable.

That's one of our keywords, can you say that?

Permeable.

Fantastic.

Geologists test different rocks for their permeability.

This helps them choose which rocks are useful for different purposes.

Let's have a check for understanding.

What is permeability?

Is it A, the ability of a material to break, bend or snag?

Is it B, the ability of a material to keep you warm?

Is it C, the ability of a material to allow water to pass through it?

Or is it D, the ability of a material to be magnetic?

Pause here while you decide, what is permeability?

Well done if you selected answer C.

Indeed, permeability is the ability of a material to allow water to pass through it.

Some rocks, like sandstone, are permeable.

This means water can pass through.

There we can see an image of some sandstone.

I wonder if you've ever seen sandstone before?

Pause here and share with someone, have you seen this rock sandstone before?

Thanks for sharing.

Some rocks, like marble, are impermeable.

What do you think this mean, can you remember?

It was one of our keywords.

Pause here and share with someone.

What does impermeable mean?

Thanks for sharing.

Perhaps you've remembered that impermeable means that water cannot pass through.

And there we can see an image of some marble.

Pause here and share with someone, have you ever seen some marble before?

Thanks for sharing.

Let's have a check for understanding.

Which of these statements are correct?

A, if a rock is permeable, it will allow water to pass through it.

B, if a rock is permeable, it will not allow water to pass through it.

C, if a rock is impermeable, it will allow water to pass through it.

D, if a rock is impermeable, it will not allow water to pass through it.

Pause here while you decide which of these statements are correct.

Well done if you selected statements A and D.

Indeed, if a rock is permeable, water will pass through and if it's impermeable, it will not allow water to pass through.

Aisha has got her thinking head on and she is wondering, "Hmm, is slate a permeable rock?

That might be why my roof is leaking.

" There we can see a slate roof in the image there.

Can you help Aisha find out why her roof is leaking?

Pause here and share with someone, have you got any ideas?

Thanks for sharing.

How could we help Aisha find out which rocks are permeable or impermeable?

Aisha's friends are thinking like geologists and they suggest you could hold different rocks under a watering can and see if the ground underneath gets wet.

Interesting suggestion.

You could put each rock in a beaker of water and see if it soaks up the water.

Another interesting one.

And you could put each rock on a piece of kitchen towel and drop water on it and see if the towel gets wet.

Oh my, another interesting suggestion.

What do you think?

Have you got any ideas to help Aisha?

Pause here, turn to someone nearby and tell them your ideas.

Think like a geologist.

Thanks for sharing your ideas, geologists.

Let's have a check for understanding.

True or false?

Geologists are interested in the permeability of rocks.

Pause here and decide, is this true or false?

Well done if you selected true and now I'd like you to say a little more about your answer.

I'd like you to justify your answer, give your reason for your answer by choosing one of these statements.

A, geologists need to know how to group rocks for permeability so they can store them neatly in the cupboard or B, geologists need to know about the permeability of rocks so they can choose the correct rock for a specific job.

Pause here and decide.

Which of these statements justifies your earlier answer?

Well done if you went for statement B.

Indeed, this is a great justification for your earlier answer.

Let's have another check for understanding.

Which of these questions could Aisha investigate to find out why her roof is leaking?

A, which rocks are hardest, B, which rocks are heaviest, C, which rocks are permanent or D, which rocks are permeable?

Pause here while you decide which of these questions could Aisha investigate to find out why her roof is leaking?

Well done if you went with question D.

Indeed, which rocks are permeable is a great question to investigate.

And now it's time for your first task.

I'd like you to use one of Aisha's ideas or your own to test which rocks in your collection are permeable and impermeable.

Record your results and make a note of any other observations.

You could create a table like this.

You could have the name of the rock on one side and then in one column and then the next column, you could tick if the rock is permeable.

Next column, tick if it is impermeable and in the next column you could write down any observations.

So pause here, geologists, while you get on with your investigation.

I'll see you when you're finished.

It's great to be back with you, everyone.

How did you get on with testing your rocks?

Which ones were permeable and which were impermeable?

You might have tested your rocks in a different way to this, and that's okay too.

So let's take a look at this table here.

So we have got the first rock was sandstone, which is permeable and observations, ooh, there were bubbles.

Next one, marble was impermeable.

There was no change.

Slate, impermeable, no change.

Chalk was permeable and the water was cloudy.

So we can see that some rocks were permeable, like sandstone and chalk and others like marble and slate were impermeable.

Well done for having a go at this task.

And now it's time for our next learning cycle, grouping rocks by permeability.

Aisha tested slate and other rocks to find out if they were permeable.

She put each rock in a beaker of a 100 milliliters of water.

Let's take a look at them.

Here we've got marble sitting in the glass of water and next is sandstone, and we have some slate, a piece of granite, some chalk and some limestone.

How interesting.

Some of the rocks were giving off bubbles and the water changed from clear to cloudy.

Pause here and share with someone, which of these rocks can you see where the water has changed from clear to cloudy?

Thanks for sharing.

Perhaps you noticed that with the chalk.

And why do you think this might be?

Why did the water in the glass which has chalk in it turn cloudy?

Thanks for sharing your ideas.

The bubbles that Aisha observed coming from some rocks were bubbles of air.

The water was passing through the small holes in the rock and pushing the air out of the rock.

You can see there's bubbles there with the limestone rock and the sandstone rock.

The rocks that produced bubbles were permeable as the water passed through them.

The rocks that didn't produce bubbles were impermeable as they did not let the water pass through them.

Some of the rocks Aisha observed turned the water cloudy, like the chalk.

We can see that there in the image, chalk in water, cloudy water.

The water was pushing bits of the rocks off into the glass which made the water cloudy.

I wonder if that's what you came up with earlier when you discussed this?

The rocks that made the water cloudy were permeable as the water passed through them.

The rocks that didn't make water cloudy were impermeable as they did not let water pass through them.

Let's have a check for understanding.

Sandstone is a permeable rock.

Use your observations of these permeability tests to decide which other rock is permeable.

Is it basalt, A, chalk, B or obsidian, C?

Pause here while you decide.

Well done if you selected answer B.

Indeed, it's the chalk.

The water has been passing through the chalk and pushing bits of it off which has made the water cloudy.

The chalk is permeable.

Aisha wants to use her results to compare and group the rocks by their permeability.

Which rocks would you group together?

So we have got marble which is impermeable and there was no change to it, sandstone was permeable and there were bubbles.

Slate, impermeable, no change.

Granite, impermeable, no change.

Chalk, permeable, cloudy water and limestone, permeable, bubbles.

Pause here and share with someone, how might you group these rocks together by their permeability?

Thanks for sharing.

So Aisha's done some grouping.

Hmm, however, there's something incorrect here.

Which rock has Aisha sorted into the permeable group incorrectly and why?

So in that permeable group, she has chalk, limestone and marble.

What's incorrect and why?

Pause here and share with someone.

Thanks for sharing.

Did you notice that marble has snuck in there somehow?

I don't know how.

It's not permeable.

Aisha's result showed that when she added marble to water, there were no bubbles and the water did not turn cloudy.

Marble is an impermeable rock and should not be in the permeable group.

Out, marble.

Which rock has Aisha sorted into the impermeable group incorrectly and why?

So here we've got the impermeables, we've got granite, we've got slate and we've got sandstone.

Who is the imposter here and why?

Pause here and share with someone.

Thanks for sharing.

Did you spot that sandstone should not be in the impermeable group?

Aisha's results showed that when she added sandstone to water, there were bubbles.

So sandstone is a permeable rock and should not be in the impermeable group.

Bye, sandstone.

Rocks can be compared and grouped by their permeability.

Which of Aisha's friends are correct?

Here's Izzy, "I think that slate and marble are impermeable rocks.

" Oh, she's seems quite definite about that.

And here's Andeep, "I think that sandstone is a permeable rock.

" Also, seems pretty definite.

Hmm, which of Aisha's friends are correct?

Pause here and share with someone nearby.

They were both correct.

No wonder they sounded so confident.

Slate and marble are impermeable rocks and sandstone is a permeable rock.

Well done, Izzy and Andeep, and well done to you as well.

Aisha looks at her group of impermeable rocks.

She has granite, she has slate and she has sandstone.

Her results show that slate is an impermeable rock, so it does not allow water from the rain to pass through it.

I conclude that some slates must have blown off in wind and that is why my roof is leaking.

Ah-ha, great thinking, Aisha.

Is that what you thought had happened as well?

Pause here and share with someone.

Do you agree with Aisha's conclusion?

Thanks for sharing.

And now it's time for your next task.

Using the results from your tests, compare and group your rocks by their permeability.

Did your results match Aisha's?

Use your results to suggest which other rocks Aisha could use to fix her roof and why?

And there we can see an image of a roof being fixed.

Ah, those tiles look good.

Looks like they're gonna keep the rain away.

So pause here while you have a go at this task using the results from your tests to compare and group your rocks by their permeability and in answering the questions as well.

I'll see you when you're finished.

Pause the video here.

It's good to be back with you.

So how did you get on with that task, grouping your rocks by their permeability?

You may have grouped your rocks like this.

Permeable, we have sandstone, limestone and chalk and impermeable, we've got slate, we've got obsidian, marble and granite.

Aisha could also use marble, granite and obsidian to fix her roof as they are impermeable rocks, like slate.

I hope you enjoyed this task and now you know exactly what to do next time you need a permeable or impermeable rock for a job.

In our lesson, "Physical Properties of Rocks, Permeability", we've covered the following.

Geologists test different rocks for permeability.

This tells them which rocks allow liquids, such as water, to pass through.

Permeable rocks, such as sandstone, let water through them.

Impermeable rocks, such as slate, do not let water through them.

Rocks can be compared and grouped by their permeability.

Well done, everyone for joining in with this lesson.

It was great to explore permeability together, which rocks are permeable, which rocks are impermeable, who's letting water through, who's not letting the water through, and then thinking about which would be a good rock for a certain job, like a roof tile for which we need impermeable rocks.

I really hope you've enjoyed this lesson.

I've certainly enjoyed teaching you and I was really interested for us to find out more about all these different rocks and of course, to experiment.

I really hope I'll see you at another science lesson soon and until then, stay curious.