Year 9 Science Lab Session Exploring Exfoliation

Year 9 have been exploring exfoliation during or recent science lessons. This explains how the layers of a rock can erode and lead to layers being removed from the surface.

This might take hundreds of years. We didn’t have time for this in the school science lab!

Instead we decided to speed the process along. An experiment was set up using the school bunsen burners. A small piece of marble was heated up at the highest temperature. This was then placed in some water to cool down.

Once it was safe to handle the marble we then observed what changes had taken place. The pupils could see that a small layer from the original marble has disappeared. These results were written up as an experiment in our science books.

This session was the first time that the students had worked with a bunsen burner in the lab. Science teacher Mr R was very impressed with their maturity and focus on keeping safe.

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