White Rock Students Dig Quartz, Make Jewelry
Fifth- and sixth-grade students in Joyce Pacheco’s science class at White Rock Elementary School recently dug up quartz on a field trip in Arkansas and made it into jewelry.
The students, 44 in all, went on a field trip to Mount Ida, Ark., where they visited Fisher Mountain and Judy’s Crystals N Things.
“The students fundraised for all of it,” Pacheco said. “We sold root beer floats,” she said.
They dug around in the soil on top of Fisher Mountain and found an abundance of quartz, Pacheco said.
“We dug up bucketfuls. You’re allowed a five-gallon bucket. We had a picture. It was a Walmart sack full,” she said.
There was also an educational aspect to the field trip. Pacheco said the students learned why the pocket of quartz was there. It formed over a million years ago, she said.
“It was nice to take the kids to the Ouachita Mountains National Park,” she said. “We packed lunches and had lunch while we were up there. By the time we got back, it was afternoon. We stopped in Fort Smith and had dinner and came back (to McDonald County).”
She added, “They loved it. We had a great time. We had some really amazing family members that stepped up and helped us out to make sure the kids had food and lunch and supervision. It was a very fun day. The kids enjoyed it.”
Pacheco said the students used the smaller pieces of quartz for their necklaces, bracelets and rings and took home the bigger pieces. She said the students researched different techniques of wire wrapping to get some ideas for jewelry making.
“They researched it on their study hall time and I gave them an afternoon. It was the last few days of school and there was not a lot going on. A lot of them made it for their moms for Mothers Day. It was fun watching them be creative and create something for their family.”
Pacheco said she thinks she will do the activity again in the future.