Field Trip to the Rock Quarry!

On Wednesday, the third grade took a field trip to the Martin Marietta rock quarry, where limestone is mined and processed. It was AWESOME! This trip will be a great anchor to students when we study rocks and minerals later this year. It was also fascinating to see a natural resource being utilized in such a dramatic way!

Here we are on the bus with our tour guide, Steve!

 The bus drove down, down, down, deep into the quarry.

 

We passed the entrance to the mine. (We couldn't go inside though... not old enough.)

We watched the huge trucks unload their limestone into the crusher.

Here the conveyor belts bring up the crushed rock to the top of the quarry for washing and final processing.

And then the rock gets poured into huge piles, ready for their customers to load and transport.

Though not the main reason for the trip, it was so interesting to hear about the economics end of the operation, too. Did you know that 5 other companies (asphalt and concrete) have an operation on site at the quarry, to help lower transportation costs? Great tie-ins to some of our social studies content!

Our bus driver sure earned his money on this trip!