SOIL.

A soil diagram chart is used to find the percent makeup of soil. By looking at the the percentages of silt, clay, and sand in the soil sample you have, you can classify it. All you do is take the numbers given and follow the corresponding lines to the middle, in which point you will find your classification. 

This is the Munsell Color System. Developed by a professor named Albert H. Munsell, this chart basis its system on the chroma, hue, and value of a sample. 

This image is of the Twelve Orders of Soil Taxonomy. The orders are alifisol, andisol, ardisol, entisol, gelisol, histisol, inceptisol, mollisol, oxisol, spodosol, ultisol, and vertisol. The most common order in Georgia is ultisol with big deposits of alfisol and inceptisol. 

ROCKS.

This is an example of gneiss. Gneiss, a metamorphic rock, is usually formed of the same composition as granite. It usually has bands of color going around it. It is named for its texture rather than its composition. It is a very common rock found where there are or were mountains.

Basalt, pictured above, is an example of an igneous rock. It is formed from the fast cooling of basaltic lava exposed at or close to the surface of a planet or moon. It is made up of less than twenty percent of quartz and less than ten percent feldspathoid. It commonly erupts on earth's moon, Mars, Venus, and even an asteroid. It underlies the earth's surface more than any other rock type. 

This is shale, a sedimentary rock. It is made up of clay minerals mixed with particles of other minerals such as quartz and calcite. It is the most common sedimentary rock, known for its flakey texture. 

Aramayorite is a rare mineral. It is composed tin and bismuth. It can be found in Bolivia. 

Ocmulgee River Lab

Even though I have lived in Macon for three years now, the lab that Dr. Rood led in the Ocmulgee was the first time I have ever been to the river aside from crossing over the bridge above it. While there, we were to do some basic testing. Because we were missing a level, we could not get elevations, but we did get a lot of different clam counts done in different areas of the riverbed as well as a jerry rigged water velocity test with what junk we found in the water.
Though I was not involved in the velocity test, from what I observed, it involved two people standing in two different areas in the river-one upstream and the other downstream with a measured distance in between. The person upstream placed the piece of buoyant trash in the water and let it float downstream while timing how long it took to get from one person to the other. Through that process, they determined the water velocity.
 Using a strainer of sorts, we obtained clam counts from different areas of the riverbed. We looked at areas that were more dry as well as the parts of the bed underwater to see which part the clams preferred. We also took samples from different depths to see how far underneath the clams preferred to live. Looking at the results, the clams preferred the most moist areas of sand to the ones towards the shore.
From what I understand, had we attempted to find the elevation differences, we would have used two long poles with strings that connected them. We would have stuck one pole in the ground and carried the other pole to another point and stick it in the ground. There would have been a level on the string which would have been used to make sure the reading was even. Through that, we would have found the differences in elevation.