OLDTOWN — It was all about “Rock and Roll” last Thursday at Idaho Hill Elementary, though it was not the musical kind.

“We are learning about geology,“ Anna-Linnea Johansson, from the Pacific Science Center’s Science on Wheels program, told the Daily Bee as she explained the “Rock and Roll” theme. “So we are talking about things that are big and small, and fast and slow, and how they all go into telling the story of our Earth.”

During the morning assembly, for example, Johansson and Ryan Kerrick, also from the science center, introduced the kids to their friend Janet, which was actually a large chunk of granite. Johansson explained to the kids that Janet is an igneous rock that formed from volcanoes, deep underground. From her research, she told the kids, she could look at Janet and see that she had cooled slowly.

“When a rock cools, sometimes they will cool very, very quickly,” she said. “And sometimes they cool very slowly.

With the help of some students, the pair demonstrated how it takes time for the three different minerals found in granite to create larger “clumps” of each mineral depending on how long the rock takes to cool. These can be seen as the different colored “spots” on rocks like Janet, they said, and the longer the granite cools, the larger those “spots” will be.

Johansson and Kerrick also talked about tectonic plates, subduction zones and more, using student volunteers and various items for interactive demonstrations. The groups of students from Idaho Hill as well as Priest Lake Elementary, which joins the school each year for the annual program, then broke off into workshops throughout the day. The workshops for the younger grades, kindergarten through second, included titles of Fantastic Fossils, Radical Rocks, and Sand-Tastic. Grades three through five took on Crystal Clear, Landform Logic, Mineral Madness and Magma Mountains. The older students also workshops on the three latter topics. Landform Logic, for example, compares geology of Earth and Mars, and students learned how to decipher satellite images of Earth and interpret some of the mysteries of Mars.

There were a number of interactive exhibits set up as well, giving the kids a chance to explore some hands-on geology.

Johansson said the PSC Science on Wheels group travels around full time providing outreach education to different schools and communities, primarily in Washington as the center is located in Seattle, but also outside of the state on occasion.

Dona Storro, Idaho Hill secretary, said the center has been visiting the school since at least 2010, sponsored every year by the Priest River Community Foundation.

The Science on Wheels program rolls through different themes each year, including Blood and Guts, Engineering, Physics on Wheels, Space Odyssey, Rock and Roll and Mathfinder.

“So by the time the kids are through our school, they have hit every one that they offer, which is really exciting for them,” Storro said.

Idaho Hill principal Susie Luckey said the school continues to provide numerous hands-on, engaging activities focused on STEAM — science, technology, engineering, art and math — and the “special day” with the science center in September each year serves as a kick-off event.

“One of our goals is to create community partnerships to enhance our school program,” Luckey said. “We are always excited to host the Pacific Science Center and would like to give a big thank you to the Priest River Community Foundation.”

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.