If you are going to study rocks, you should have some rocks to study. Luckily, rocks are all around you, so you should have an easy time starting your collection. Some good places to look include:

• Your yard: The first place to look is around your home. You may find rocks along your driveway, in flower beds, or along the side of the road in front of your house.
• Garden Center: Garden centers sell many kinds of gravel for use in flower beds. You may be able to find limestone, marble, scoria, granite, gneiss, or river rock (which will have a wide variety of rocks).
• Road cuts: The places where roads have been cut through the rock can be a great place to see what is going on under the surface.
• Streams: Stream beds contain a collection of rocks from the entire length of the river or stream. The flowing water erodes bits of rock, and carries them downstream.
• Building stone: While you can't use your rock hammer to collect specimens, local buildings are great places to see a wide variety of rocks.