-
A Monument Story
Find a monument made of stone in the Stonehammer Geopark. What does it commemorate? How long ago was it mounted? Look in King Square, Queen Square (Saint John) or in your local area.
A Timeline In Your Own Backyard
Earth Learning Idea has dozens of lesson plans, searchable by category or topic, including “A Timeline In Your Own Backyard“.
Ancient Reptile Tracks
A story on a reptile footprint discovery in NB and climate and ecosystem change.
Animals Love Rocks Too
Go bird-watching or follow small animal tracks at your favourite Stonehammer Geopark site. Can you find homes made by wildlife using rocks?
Caching Adventure
Go on an EarthCache or geocache adventure! You can form your own teams with each team leader using a Smartphone or GPS. Find the caches by registering at Geocache.org. Or you can reserve a program with Maritime DayTripping at Rockwood Park, just one of many experiences located in Stonehammer Geopark.
Classifying Rocks
Learn more about how geologists classify rocks. Use the ESEU Virtual Rock Kit or explore the Virtual Museum of Canada for ideas.
Colourful Collection
Over time, make a virtual collection (in photos, notes and drawings or your favourite way to keep track) of rock formations in as many colours as you can find: try to slot in one for each of the colour families of the rainbow.
Drama In The Geopark
Create a way to show the violent earth science processes of the geopark in drama: the opening and closing of the Iapetus Ocean and the opening and spreading of the Atlantic Ocean; the glaciers melting and dragging across the landscape; the rocky terranes tearing off continents around the world and slamming together to form the folds, upheavals, and ancient mountains of the Geopark; erosion of cliffs from the pounding of the waves on the shore.
Environmental Threats
Learn about environmental threats to the landscape within the Stonehammer Geopark boundaries.
Explore Your Way
Walk, hike, swim, bike, snowshoe, ski or choose your favourite way to explore nature in Stonehammer Geopark with your friends or our Outdoor Adventure operators can organize a class field trip, museum activities, hiking, geocache, snow-shoeing activity for all age and activity levels.
Exploring Fun
Canoe, kayak, hike, swim, bike, snowshoe, ski, or geocache, choose your favourite way to explore nature in Stonehammer Geopark with your friends or have our experience providers organize a class field trip, museum activities, kayaking, hiking, harbour cruise, zip-line, geocache, snowshoeing activity for all age and activity levels.
Formation Station
Find where you live (or where your class or group meets) in the Stonehammer Geopark. Where are your located on our geology map, the brightly coloured maps that show rock formations.
Geo Masterpiece
Create an art project with stones and pebbles that you find, piling them up and arranging them or gluing them together. Try adding shells, acorns, birch bark, and other natural materials to create your masterpiece.
Geo Selfie
Photograph yourself or your school mascot in 2 or more different Stonehammer Geosites. Challenge yourself to get to as many as you can!
Geoscience Database
Other geoscience databases including minerals occurrence, granular aggregate, core samples and more.
Geosite Safety
Locate a geosite that you’d like more people to be able to visit. Do your own safety audit and write down what improvements would have to be made to make it safer for visitors.
Glaciers Hands-On
Hands-on glacier learning activity from the Discovery Science Center in California.
Global Geoparks
Use the Global Geoparks Network to find other geoparks. Then…
- Choose one you think is most like Stonehammer Geopark? Why?
- Name one that you would most like to visit. Why?
- Find what geopark is the furthest away from Saint John? Hint: use latitude and longitude and a little math to figure out our “opposite” spot on the globe and find the park closest to that spot!
Historic Home
Create a biography of your home, including the history of the house and perhaps business nearby past and present.
It’s A Sketch
Find ornaments or decorations carved from stone somewhere in the Geopark and sketch them. How long ago was it carved? Is it still in great condition or does it need some repair work?
It’s Monumental
Write the history of monuments in your local community park, i.e. King Square, with an emphasis on building materials.
Lithograph
Experiment with ways to make a lithograph. Draw a design on a flat stone surface in grease pencil and transfer it to paper.
Look Out For Rocks
During one day, write down every time you see something made of stone. How long is your list?
Make A Pet Rock
Go to a rocky beach or safe roadside site and pick one favourite rock. Compare how the other rocks you see are different and how they are the same as yours. Wash and dry it or brush it clean with a microfiber cloth. Glue googly eyes on rock with white glue. Draw the rest of a face with markers. Give him/her lots of character! Name your pet.
Mineral History Database
The Geoscience Database comprises approximately ten thousand records transcribed mainly from old newspaper articles archived in the Saint John Public Library and from files of the New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources.
Minerals In Your Life
Some of the historic and present industries within the Stonehammer Geopark boundaries that rely on rocks are: mining for graphite and potash; quarrying granite for building and lime for cement.
Find out if you have been using any of these products in your daily life? Visit Rocks and Minerals: Everyday Uses (The Museum of Natural and Cultural History) and Minerals In Our Environment (WGBH Educational Foundation) for ideas.
Mining Matters
Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) runs an extensive Educational Website called “Mining Matters” with an extensive educator section.
More Than Just A Rock
Look at various rocky outcroppings you can find at the geosites and around the footprint of the Geopark. Can you see a face, an animal, or a recognizable shape outlined in the rocks? Draw it and name it!
Advanced: research the traditional names of some rock faces you are familiar with. Do you have a sugar loaf, minister’s face or castle rock near you?
Nature’s Artistry
Look at various rocky outcroppings you can find at the geosites and around the footprint of the Geopark. Can you see a face, an animal, or a recognizable shape outlined in the rocks? Draw it and name it! Make paper and crayon rubbings of different rock outcroppings you can find on a beach walk or hike. Is your rock rough or smooth?
On The Hunt
Find and photograph yourself with one or more of the following anywhere in the Stonehammer Geopark…
- Fossil
- Volcanic sill
- Folded or tilted sedimentary layers
- Visible fault line
- Something eroded like a cave, a “flowerpot rock” or a cliff
- Evidence of a glacier’s violent movement, like a scrape in a rock or a deposited boulder
For help finding them, use EarthCache.org or Geocaching.com.
Paint A Rock
Paint a rock to look like an animal, scene, flower etc. Work with the natural shape of your rock to make it even better! Is there a part that looks like a chin, ears, a bunny tail? Helpful hints: clean your rock well first. You can use nail polish, tempera paint, or acrylic paint. If you want to do this activity with a group of kids and have better, brighter results with washable paint, then prepare the rocks beforehand by painting them all white with any thick paint such as art acrylic or household latex paint.
Peek-A-Boo
Find your favourite stone sculpture on a building or freestanding somewhere indoors or outdoors within the Stonehammer Geopark and sketch it. Need some ideas? Walk around in the Trinity Royal district of Uptown Saint John and look up!
Pennsylvanian Plant Fossils
Information on Pennsylvanian plant fossils from the Earth Sciences Museum at the University of Waterloo.
People of Stonehammer
Perform one of the “human stories” from the Stonehammer Geopark. Research an early pioneer of geology such as Will Matthew or Marie Stopes and write a monologue for an actor to portray him or her.
Photograph A Rock
Use your creativity to capture the beauty of stone somewhere in the Geopark. Be sure you focus well on the rock surface. This is a good time to practice with manual focus and f-stop, since your rock is staying still! As well, if you have a macro setting on your camera, can you capture crystal structure in a picture?
Putting The Earth Into Science
Putting the Earth into Science is directed to teachers of high school chemistry, physics, biology, general science, environmental science and mathematics. Excellent, detailed lesson plans.
Rock Faces
Research the traditional names of some rock faces you are familiar with. Do you have a sugarloaf, minister’s face or castle rock near you?
Rock Group
Use a rock collection you already have or get outside and collect as many different rocks as you can find. Lay them all out where you can see them well. Decide what characteristics they have. Group them according to your own classification system.
Rock Properties
Get out your rock collection! Scientists test rocks for their age, how they were formed, what they contain, and more. Industry looks for minerals to mine in certain rocks. You can learn more about the properties of the rocks you have by testing them. There are many sites with resources. We recommend beginning with the Virtual Museum of Canada.
Rocks With A Role
Rocks With A Role &emdash; Dave Young, reporter for The Saint John Times Globe (with some editing by Randy Miller, Curator of Geology and Palaeontology, New Brunswick Museum). From “What on Earth, A Canadian Newsletter for the Earth Sciences” November 1998.
Seasoned Discoveries
Choose your favourite Stonehammer Geopark site and visit it during 2 or more different seasons. In each season, what is a special thing you can do there?
Stone Is Everywhere
Can you even begin to list all the things you use in a day that contain products mined from stone? From the calcium carbonate in your toothpaste to the graphite in your pencil, this is going to be a long list!
Stone Sculpture
Create a sculpture in soapstone or Indiana limestone with hand tools or a Dremel tool. You could practice carving first with bars of soap.
The Fossil Hunter
A group can perform together reading “Will Matthew: The Fossil Hunter” storybook or imagining something that might happen now. For example, pretend to find the first dinosaur fossil in the Stonehammer Geopark! Jump around with excitement! Get your hammer and carefully tap it out of a big rock face. Carry the heavy stone to the museum.
The Hunt For Stone
Look all around your house, meeting place or class for something that is made of stone. If it is getting too difficult to find, you can learn that metal is mined from rock and look for something metal.
Through The Window
The United Kingdom’s Earth Science Education Unit provides free lesson plans for elementary level. They provide a useful student worksheet titled “Through The Window” for looking at exposed rock outside.
True Colours
Collect a range of colours in small stones and display them in water or rub them with a little vegetable or olive oil to enhance their colour.
Visit A Museum
Visit a museum or public place that has stone sculptures on display. Learn about the type of stone used and how the artist created the work. Be sure to look at it from all sides.
Working Out The Age of The Earth
Earth Learning Idea has dozens of lesson plans, searchable by category or topic, including “Working Out The Age of The Earth” giving historic perspectives on the age of the earth.
Write Away
Write a story, poem, play, or blog about a Stonehammer Geopark topic of your choice.
Some suggestions to get you started:
- What was it like when your area of Stonehammer Geopark was at the equator?
- Describe the typical day in the life of a lizard 300 million years ago.
- What was it like 100 years ago when 11 year old Will Matthew discovered the first giant trilobite fossil?
- Write about a family enjoying the Geopark today.
- Does one of the rocky landscapes in the Stonehammer Geopark inspire you? Visit the Fundy Trail or one of the other geosites and write about what you see.
- What fossils will be left behind from our era? Write about them being discovered in 50,000 years.
- Design a walking tour brochure using one of the three historic walking tours of Saint John as a model. Use two square city blocks around King Street East, Leinster, Orange, Princess or Sydney Street that could be used by visitors to learn about the history and culture of Saint John, including homes, industry, entertainment, religion and architecture.
- Write a song about the history of your school.
- Write of the history of your school with an emphasis on building materials.
- Create a walking tour of the Loyalist burial ground with a focus on Milligan, a stonecutter, on Dr. Boyd, and his connection to the Kent Marine Hospital (now the Turnbull Nursing Home) and the building materials of the Beaver Fountain and the wrought iron gates in the burial ground.
- Create a Biography showing the house you live in, history of the house, business nearby, .i.e. Osgood, a marble manufacturer who lived on King Street East.
- You’re hired! A cruise ship is coming to Saint John and a family of 4 with $200, an adult couple with no money, and a group of 20 with $1000 are looking for a day experiencing the Stonehammer Geopark! Plan a one day outing for one or more of these groups. See our featured activities for some great ideas of what to do, but anything in the Stonehammer Geopark boundaries goes.
Young Geologist
Learn about geology on the web, from a book, in the classroom or at home. Be able to describe one of the following processes:
- Plate tectonics
- Continental drift
- Opening and closing of oceans
- How igneous rocks were formed
- How metamorphic rocks were formed
- How sedimentary rocks were formed
- How fossils are made
- Erosion
-
A Monument Story
Find a monument made of stone in the Stonehammer Geopark. What does it commemorate? How long ago was it mounted? Look in King Square, Queen Square (Saint John) or in your local area.
A Timeline In Your Own Backyard
Earth Learning Idea has dozens of lesson plans, searchable by category or topic, including “A Timeline In Your Own Backyard“.
Ancient Reptile Tracks
A story on a reptile footprint discovery in NB and climate and ecosystem change.
Animals Love Rocks Too
Go bird-watching or follow small animal tracks at your favourite Stonehammer Geopark site. Can you find homes made by wildlife using rocks?
Caching Adventure
Go on an EarthCache or geocache adventure! You can form your own teams with each team leader using a Smartphone or GPS. Find the caches by registering at Geocache.org. Or you can reserve a program with Maritime DayTripping at Rockwood Park, just one of many experiences located in Stonehammer Geopark.
Classifying Rocks
Learn more about how geologists classify rocks. Use the ESEU Virtual Rock Kit or explore the Virtual Museum of Canada for ideas.
Colourful Collection
Over time, make a virtual collection (in photos, notes and drawings or your favourite way to keep track) of rock formations in as many colours as you can find: try to slot in one for each of the colour families of the rainbow.
Drama In The Geopark
Create a way to show the violent earth science processes of the geopark in drama: the opening and closing of the Iapetus Ocean and the opening and spreading of the Atlantic Ocean; the glaciers melting and dragging across the landscape; the rocky terranes tearing off continents around the world and slamming together to form the folds, upheavals, and ancient mountains of the Geopark; erosion of cliffs from the pounding of the waves on the shore.
Environmental Threats
Learn about environmental threats to the landscape within the Stonehammer Geopark boundaries.
Explore Your Way
Walk, hike, swim, bike, snowshoe, ski or choose your favourite way to explore nature in Stonehammer Geopark with your friends or our Outdoor Adventure operators can organize a class field trip, museum activities, hiking, geocache, snow-shoeing activity for all age and activity levels.
Exploring Fun
Canoe, kayak, hike, swim, bike, snowshoe, ski, or geocache, choose your favourite way to explore nature in Stonehammer Geopark with your friends or have our experience providers organize a class field trip, museum activities, kayaking, hiking, harbour cruise, zip-line, geocache, snowshoeing activity for all age and activity levels.
Formation Station
Find where you live (or where your class or group meets) in the Stonehammer Geopark. Where are your located on our geology map, the brightly coloured maps that show rock formations.
Geo Masterpiece
Create an art project with stones and pebbles that you find, piling them up and arranging them or gluing them together. Try adding shells, acorns, birch bark, and other natural materials to create your masterpiece.
Geo Selfie
Photograph yourself or your school mascot in 2 or more different Stonehammer Geosites. Challenge yourself to get to as many as you can!
Geoscience Database
Other geoscience databases including minerals occurrence, granular aggregate, core samples and more.
Geosite Safety
Locate a geosite that you’d like more people to be able to visit. Do your own safety audit and write down what improvements would have to be made to make it safer for visitors.
Glaciers Hands-On
Hands-on glacier learning activity from the Discovery Science Center in California.
Global Geoparks
Use the Global Geoparks Network to find other geoparks. Then…
- Choose one you think is most like Stonehammer Geopark? Why?
- Name one that you would most like to visit. Why?
- Find what geopark is the furthest away from Saint John? Hint: use latitude and longitude and a little math to figure out our “opposite” spot on the globe and find the park closest to that spot!
Historic Home
Create a biography of your home, including the history of the house and perhaps business nearby past and present.
It’s A Sketch
Find ornaments or decorations carved from stone somewhere in the Geopark and sketch them. How long ago was it carved? Is it still in great condition or does it need some repair work?
It’s Monumental
Write the history of monuments in your local community park, i.e. King Square, with an emphasis on building materials.
Lithograph
Experiment with ways to make a lithograph. Draw a design on a flat stone surface in grease pencil and transfer it to paper.
Look Out For Rocks
During one day, write down every time you see something made of stone. How long is your list?
Make A Pet Rock
Go to a rocky beach or safe roadside site and pick one favourite rock. Compare how the other rocks you see are different and how they are the same as yours. Wash and dry it or brush it clean with a microfiber cloth. Glue googly eyes on rock with white glue. Draw the rest of a face with markers. Give him/her lots of character! Name your pet.
Mineral History Database
The Geoscience Database comprises approximately ten thousand records transcribed mainly from old newspaper articles archived in the Saint John Public Library and from files of the New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources.
Minerals In Your Life
Some of the historic and present industries within the Stonehammer Geopark boundaries that rely on rocks are: mining for graphite and potash; quarrying granite for building and lime for cement.
Find out if you have been using any of these products in your daily life? Visit Rocks and Minerals: Everyday Uses (The Museum of Natural and Cultural History) and Minerals In Our Environment (WGBH Educational Foundation) for ideas.
Mining Matters
Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) runs an extensive Educational Website called “Mining Matters” with an extensive educator section.
More Than Just A Rock
Look at various rocky outcroppings you can find at the geosites and around the footprint of the Geopark. Can you see a face, an animal, or a recognizable shape outlined in the rocks? Draw it and name it!
Advanced: research the traditional names of some rock faces you are familiar with. Do you have a sugar loaf, minister’s face or castle rock near you?
Nature’s Artistry
Look at various rocky outcroppings you can find at the geosites and around the footprint of the Geopark. Can you see a face, an animal, or a recognizable shape outlined in the rocks? Draw it and name it! Make paper and crayon rubbings of different rock outcroppings you can find on a beach walk or hike. Is your rock rough or smooth?
On The Hunt
Find and photograph yourself with one or more of the following anywhere in the Stonehammer Geopark…
- Fossil
- Volcanic sill
- Folded or tilted sedimentary layers
- Visible fault line
- Something eroded like a cave, a “flowerpot rock” or a cliff
- Evidence of a glacier’s violent movement, like a scrape in a rock or a deposited boulder
For help finding them, use EarthCache.org or Geocaching.com.
Paint A Rock
Paint a rock to look like an animal, scene, flower etc. Work with the natural shape of your rock to make it even better! Is there a part that looks like a chin, ears, a bunny tail? Helpful hints: clean your rock well first. You can use nail polish, tempera paint, or acrylic paint. If you want to do this activity with a group of kids and have better, brighter results with washable paint, then prepare the rocks beforehand by painting them all white with any thick paint such as art acrylic or household latex paint.
Peek-A-Boo
Find your favourite stone sculpture on a building or freestanding somewhere indoors or outdoors within the Stonehammer Geopark and sketch it. Need some ideas? Walk around in the Trinity Royal district of Uptown Saint John and look up!
Pennsylvanian Plant Fossils
Information on Pennsylvanian plant fossils from the Earth Sciences Museum at the University of Waterloo.
People of Stonehammer
Perform one of the “human stories” from the Stonehammer Geopark. Research an early pioneer of geology such as Will Matthew or Marie Stopes and write a monologue for an actor to portray him or her.
Photograph A Rock
Use your creativity to capture the beauty of stone somewhere in the Geopark. Be sure you focus well on the rock surface. This is a good time to practice with manual focus and f-stop, since your rock is staying still! As well, if you have a macro setting on your camera, can you capture crystal structure in a picture?
Putting The Earth Into Science
Putting the Earth into Science is directed to teachers of high school chemistry, physics, biology, general science, environmental science and mathematics. Excellent, detailed lesson plans.
Rock Faces
Research the traditional names of some rock faces you are familiar with. Do you have a sugarloaf, minister’s face or castle rock near you?
Rock Group
Use a rock collection you already have or get outside and collect as many different rocks as you can find. Lay them all out where you can see them well. Decide what characteristics they have. Group them according to your own classification system.
Rock Properties
Get out your rock collection! Scientists test rocks for their age, how they were formed, what they contain, and more. Industry looks for minerals to mine in certain rocks. You can learn more about the properties of the rocks you have by testing them. There are many sites with resources. We recommend beginning with the Virtual Museum of Canada.
Rocks With A Role
Rocks With A Role &emdash; Dave Young, reporter for The Saint John Times Globe (with some editing by Randy Miller, Curator of Geology and Palaeontology, New Brunswick Museum). From “What on Earth, A Canadian Newsletter for the Earth Sciences” November 1998.
Seasoned Discoveries
Choose your favourite Stonehammer Geopark site and visit it during 2 or more different seasons. In each season, what is a special thing you can do there?
Stone Is Everywhere
Can you even begin to list all the things you use in a day that contain products mined from stone? From the calcium carbonate in your toothpaste to the graphite in your pencil, this is going to be a long list!
Stone Sculpture
Create a sculpture in soapstone or Indiana limestone with hand tools or a Dremel tool. You could practice carving first with bars of soap.
The Fossil Hunter
A group can perform together reading “Will Matthew: The Fossil Hunter” storybook or imagining something that might happen now. For example, pretend to find the first dinosaur fossil in the Stonehammer Geopark! Jump around with excitement! Get your hammer and carefully tap it out of a big rock face. Carry the heavy stone to the museum.
The Hunt For Stone
Look all around your house, meeting place or class for something that is made of stone. If it is getting too difficult to find, you can learn that metal is mined from rock and look for something metal.
Through The Window
The United Kingdom’s Earth Science Education Unit provides free lesson plans for elementary level. They provide a useful student worksheet titled “Through The Window” for looking at exposed rock outside.
True Colours
Collect a range of colours in small stones and display them in water or rub them with a little vegetable or olive oil to enhance their colour.
Visit A Museum
Visit a museum or public place that has stone sculptures on display. Learn about the type of stone used and how the artist created the work. Be sure to look at it from all sides.
Working Out The Age of The Earth
Earth Learning Idea has dozens of lesson plans, searchable by category or topic, including “Working Out The Age of The Earth” giving historic perspectives on the age of the earth.
Write Away
Write a story, poem, play, or blog about a Stonehammer Geopark topic of your choice.
Some suggestions to get you started:
- What was it like when your area of Stonehammer Geopark was at the equator?
- Describe the typical day in the life of a lizard 300 million years ago.
- What was it like 100 years ago when 11 year old Will Matthew discovered the first giant trilobite fossil?
- Write about a family enjoying the Geopark today.
- Does one of the rocky landscapes in the Stonehammer Geopark inspire you? Visit the Fundy Trail or one of the other geosites and write about what you see.
- What fossils will be left behind from our era? Write about them being discovered in 50,000 years.
- Design a walking tour brochure using one of the three historic walking tours of Saint John as a model. Use two square city blocks around King Street East, Leinster, Orange, Princess or Sydney Street that could be used by visitors to learn about the history and culture of Saint John, including homes, industry, entertainment, religion and architecture.
- Write a song about the history of your school.
- Write of the history of your school with an emphasis on building materials.
- Create a walking tour of the Loyalist burial ground with a focus on Milligan, a stonecutter, on Dr. Boyd, and his connection to the Kent Marine Hospital (now the Turnbull Nursing Home) and the building materials of the Beaver Fountain and the wrought iron gates in the burial ground.
- Create a Biography showing the house you live in, history of the house, business nearby, .i.e. Osgood, a marble manufacturer who lived on King Street East.
- You’re hired! A cruise ship is coming to Saint John and a family of 4 with $200, an adult couple with no money, and a group of 20 with $1000 are looking for a day experiencing the Stonehammer Geopark! Plan a one day outing for one or more of these groups. See our featured activities for some great ideas of what to do, but anything in the Stonehammer Geopark boundaries goes.
Young Geologist
Learn about geology on the web, from a book, in the classroom or at home. Be able to describe one of the following processes:
- Plate tectonics
- Continental drift
- Opening and closing of oceans
- How igneous rocks were formed
- How metamorphic rocks were formed
- How sedimentary rocks were formed
- How fossils are made
- Erosion
-
A Monument Story
Find a monument made of stone in the Stonehammer Geopark. What does it commemorate? How long ago was it mounted? Look in King Square, Queen Square (Saint John) or in your local area.
A Timeline In Your Own Backyard
Earth Learning Idea has dozens of lesson plans, searchable by category or topic, including “A Timeline In Your Own Backyard“.
Ancient Reptile Tracks
A story on a reptile footprint discovery in NB and climate and ecosystem change.
Animals Love Rocks Too
Go bird-watching or follow small animal tracks at your favourite Stonehammer Geopark site. Can you find homes made by wildlife using rocks?
Caching Adventure
Go on an EarthCache or geocache adventure! You can form your own teams with each team leader using a Smartphone or GPS. Find the caches by registering at Geocache.org. Or you can reserve a program with Maritime DayTripping at Rockwood Park, just one of many experiences located in Stonehammer Geopark.
Classifying Rocks
Learn more about how geologists classify rocks. Use the ESEU Virtual Rock Kit or explore the Virtual Museum of Canada for ideas.
Colourful Collection
Over time, make a virtual collection (in photos, notes and drawings or your favourite way to keep track) of rock formations in as many colours as you can find: try to slot in one for each of the colour families of the rainbow.
Drama In The Geopark
Create a way to show the violent earth science processes of the geopark in drama: the opening and closing of the Iapetus Ocean and the opening and spreading of the Atlantic Ocean; the glaciers melting and dragging across the landscape; the rocky terranes tearing off continents around the world and slamming together to form the folds, upheavals, and ancient mountains of the Geopark; erosion of cliffs from the pounding of the waves on the shore.
Environmental Threats
Learn about environmental threats to the landscape within the Stonehammer Geopark boundaries.
Explore Your Way
Walk, hike, swim, bike, snowshoe, ski or choose your favourite way to explore nature in Stonehammer Geopark with your friends or our Outdoor Adventure operators can organize a class field trip, museum activities, hiking, geocache, snow-shoeing activity for all age and activity levels.
Exploring Fun
Canoe, kayak, hike, swim, bike, snowshoe, ski, or geocache, choose your favourite way to explore nature in Stonehammer Geopark with your friends or have our experience providers organize a class field trip, museum activities, kayaking, hiking, harbour cruise, zip-line, geocache, snowshoeing activity for all age and activity levels.
Formation Station
Find where you live (or where your class or group meets) in the Stonehammer Geopark. Where are your located on our geology map, the brightly coloured maps that show rock formations.
Geo Masterpiece
Create an art project with stones and pebbles that you find, piling them up and arranging them or gluing them together. Try adding shells, acorns, birch bark, and other natural materials to create your masterpiece.
Geo Selfie
Photograph yourself or your school mascot in 2 or more different Stonehammer Geosites. Challenge yourself to get to as many as you can!
Geoscience Database
Other geoscience databases including minerals occurrence, granular aggregate, core samples and more.
Geosite Safety
Locate a geosite that you’d like more people to be able to visit. Do your own safety audit and write down what improvements would have to be made to make it safer for visitors.
Glaciers Hands-On
Hands-on glacier learning activity from the Discovery Science Center in California.
Global Geoparks
Use the Global Geoparks Network to find other geoparks. Then…
- Choose one you think is most like Stonehammer Geopark? Why?
- Name one that you would most like to visit. Why?
- Find what geopark is the furthest away from Saint John? Hint: use latitude and longitude and a little math to figure out our “opposite” spot on the globe and find the park closest to that spot!
Historic Home
Create a biography of your home, including the history of the house and perhaps business nearby past and present.
It’s A Sketch
Find ornaments or decorations carved from stone somewhere in the Geopark and sketch them. How long ago was it carved? Is it still in great condition or does it need some repair work?
It’s Monumental
Write the history of monuments in your local community park, i.e. King Square, with an emphasis on building materials.
Lithograph
Experiment with ways to make a lithograph. Draw a design on a flat stone surface in grease pencil and transfer it to paper.
Look Out For Rocks
During one day, write down every time you see something made of stone. How long is your list?
Make A Pet Rock
Go to a rocky beach or safe roadside site and pick one favourite rock. Compare how the other rocks you see are different and how they are the same as yours. Wash and dry it or brush it clean with a microfiber cloth. Glue googly eyes on rock with white glue. Draw the rest of a face with markers. Give him/her lots of character! Name your pet.
Mineral History Database
The Geoscience Database comprises approximately ten thousand records transcribed mainly from old newspaper articles archived in the Saint John Public Library and from files of the New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources.
Minerals In Your Life
Some of the historic and present industries within the Stonehammer Geopark boundaries that rely on rocks are: mining for graphite and potash; quarrying granite for building and lime for cement.
Find out if you have been using any of these products in your daily life? Visit Rocks and Minerals: Everyday Uses (The Museum of Natural and Cultural History) and Minerals In Our Environment (WGBH Educational Foundation) for ideas.
Mining Matters
Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) runs an extensive Educational Website called “Mining Matters” with an extensive educator section.
More Than Just A Rock
Look at various rocky outcroppings you can find at the geosites and around the footprint of the Geopark. Can you see a face, an animal, or a recognizable shape outlined in the rocks? Draw it and name it!
Advanced: research the traditional names of some rock faces you are familiar with. Do you have a sugar loaf, minister’s face or castle rock near you?
Nature’s Artistry
Look at various rocky outcroppings you can find at the geosites and around the footprint of the Geopark. Can you see a face, an animal, or a recognizable shape outlined in the rocks? Draw it and name it! Make paper and crayon rubbings of different rock outcroppings you can find on a beach walk or hike. Is your rock rough or smooth?
On The Hunt
Find and photograph yourself with one or more of the following anywhere in the Stonehammer Geopark…
- Fossil
- Volcanic sill
- Folded or tilted sedimentary layers
- Visible fault line
- Something eroded like a cave, a “flowerpot rock” or a cliff
- Evidence of a glacier’s violent movement, like a scrape in a rock or a deposited boulder
For help finding them, use EarthCache.org or Geocaching.com.
Paint A Rock
Paint a rock to look like an animal, scene, flower etc. Work with the natural shape of your rock to make it even better! Is there a part that looks like a chin, ears, a bunny tail? Helpful hints: clean your rock well first. You can use nail polish, tempera paint, or acrylic paint. If you want to do this activity with a group of kids and have better, brighter results with washable paint, then prepare the rocks beforehand by painting them all white with any thick paint such as art acrylic or household latex paint.
Peek-A-Boo
Find your favourite stone sculpture on a building or freestanding somewhere indoors or outdoors within the Stonehammer Geopark and sketch it. Need some ideas? Walk around in the Trinity Royal district of Uptown Saint John and look up!
Pennsylvanian Plant Fossils
Information on Pennsylvanian plant fossils from the Earth Sciences Museum at the University of Waterloo.
People of Stonehammer
Perform one of the “human stories” from the Stonehammer Geopark. Research an early pioneer of geology such as Will Matthew or Marie Stopes and write a monologue for an actor to portray him or her.
Photograph A Rock
Use your creativity to capture the beauty of stone somewhere in the Geopark. Be sure you focus well on the rock surface. This is a good time to practice with manual focus and f-stop, since your rock is staying still! As well, if you have a macro setting on your camera, can you capture crystal structure in a picture?
Putting The Earth Into Science
Putting the Earth into Science is directed to teachers of high school chemistry, physics, biology, general science, environmental science and mathematics. Excellent, detailed lesson plans.
Rock Faces
Research the traditional names of some rock faces you are familiar with. Do you have a sugarloaf, minister’s face or castle rock near you?
Rock Group
Use a rock collection you already have or get outside and collect as many different rocks as you can find. Lay them all out where you can see them well. Decide what characteristics they have. Group them according to your own classification system.
Rock Properties
Get out your rock collection! Scientists test rocks for their age, how they were formed, what they contain, and more. Industry looks for minerals to mine in certain rocks. You can learn more about the properties of the rocks you have by testing them. There are many sites with resources. We recommend beginning with the Virtual Museum of Canada.
Rocks With A Role
Rocks With A Role &emdash; Dave Young, reporter for The Saint John Times Globe (with some editing by Randy Miller, Curator of Geology and Palaeontology, New Brunswick Museum). From “What on Earth, A Canadian Newsletter for the Earth Sciences” November 1998.
Seasoned Discoveries
Choose your favourite Stonehammer Geopark site and visit it during 2 or more different seasons. In each season, what is a special thing you can do there?
Stone Is Everywhere
Can you even begin to list all the things you use in a day that contain products mined from stone? From the calcium carbonate in your toothpaste to the graphite in your pencil, this is going to be a long list!
Stone Sculpture
Create a sculpture in soapstone or Indiana limestone with hand tools or a Dremel tool. You could practice carving first with bars of soap.
The Fossil Hunter
A group can perform together reading “Will Matthew: The Fossil Hunter” storybook or imagining something that might happen now. For example, pretend to find the first dinosaur fossil in the Stonehammer Geopark! Jump around with excitement! Get your hammer and carefully tap it out of a big rock face. Carry the heavy stone to the museum.
The Hunt For Stone
Look all around your house, meeting place or class for something that is made of stone. If it is getting too difficult to find, you can learn that metal is mined from rock and look for something metal.
Through The Window
The United Kingdom’s Earth Science Education Unit provides free lesson plans for elementary level. They provide a useful student worksheet titled “Through The Window” for looking at exposed rock outside.
True Colours
Collect a range of colours in small stones and display them in water or rub them with a little vegetable or olive oil to enhance their colour.
Visit A Museum
Visit a museum or public place that has stone sculptures on display. Learn about the type of stone used and how the artist created the work. Be sure to look at it from all sides.
Working Out The Age of The Earth
Earth Learning Idea has dozens of lesson plans, searchable by category or topic, including “Working Out The Age of The Earth” giving historic perspectives on the age of the earth.
Write Away
Write a story, poem, play, or blog about a Stonehammer Geopark topic of your choice.
Some suggestions to get you started:
- What was it like when your area of Stonehammer Geopark was at the equator?
- Describe the typical day in the life of a lizard 300 million years ago.
- What was it like 100 years ago when 11 year old Will Matthew discovered the first giant trilobite fossil?
- Write about a family enjoying the Geopark today.
- Does one of the rocky landscapes in the Stonehammer Geopark inspire you? Visit the Fundy Trail or one of the other geosites and write about what you see.
- What fossils will be left behind from our era? Write about them being discovered in 50,000 years.
- Design a walking tour brochure using one of the three historic walking tours of Saint John as a model. Use two square city blocks around King Street East, Leinster, Orange, Princess or Sydney Street that could be used by visitors to learn about the history and culture of Saint John, including homes, industry, entertainment, religion and architecture.
- Write a song about the history of your school.
- Write of the history of your school with an emphasis on building materials.
- Create a walking tour of the Loyalist burial ground with a focus on Milligan, a stonecutter, on Dr. Boyd, and his connection to the Kent Marine Hospital (now the Turnbull Nursing Home) and the building materials of the Beaver Fountain and the wrought iron gates in the burial ground.
- Create a Biography showing the house you live in, history of the house, business nearby, .i.e. Osgood, a marble manufacturer who lived on King Street East.
- You’re hired! A cruise ship is coming to Saint John and a family of 4 with $200, an adult couple with no money, and a group of 20 with $1000 are looking for a day experiencing the Stonehammer Geopark! Plan a one day outing for one or more of these groups. See our featured activities for some great ideas of what to do, but anything in the Stonehammer Geopark boundaries goes.
Young Geologist
Learn about geology on the web, from a book, in the classroom or at home. Be able to describe one of the following processes:
- Plate tectonics
- Continental drift
- Opening and closing of oceans
- How igneous rocks were formed
- How metamorphic rocks were formed
- How sedimentary rocks were formed
- How fossils are made
- Erosion
Stonehammer Geopark can provide in classroom speakers for schools within the geopark footprint on a first-come, first-serve basis. We do have limited hours available so please send your requests at least two weeks in advance of desired timing.
