Mineral Science Lessons
Though the term mineral has a specific meaning in geology, students may have a different conception of minerals. Resources in this section will help students develop scientifically accurate conceptions of minerals.
Since gemstones are a concrete concept most middle school students can relate to, the stones can be the bridge to the larger world of minerals used widely in industry. This is a comprehensive site on tens of gemstones. The left navigation bar contains links to the alphabetically listed minerals, each a concise description with a photograph. A quick 15-20-minute activity could be designed in which students "hunt" for the gemstone of a given property as a segue into a unit on minerals and their uses.
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Minerals are all around us — in our kitchens and bathrooms and in our cars and bicycles. This interactive feature lets students discover which minerals are found in objects they encounter every day. Rolling the cursor over items in illustrated rooms accesses pop-ups that describe what mineral products may be found in them. A background essay and list of discussion questions, which extend to questions of mining, are also provided. Free registration is required.
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Students discover information about rocks, fossils, and minerals by solving geo mysteries. In the Mystery of the Floating Rock, they need to try to decide if a sedimentary, metamorphic, or igneous rock floats. They are given information about each of the rocks, they can see animated pictures of how each forms, and they can view a volcano erupting. In the Mystery of the Broken Necklace, students need to figure out what kind of fossils are the beads of a necklace. They are given information about crinoid fossils and can see a piece of the ancient Borden Sea. By clicking on each of the fossils, students can see what lived there long ago. They will also learn about the three kinds of fossils and how they are prepared. The Mystery of the Golden Cube has students deciding if a cube is a rock, mineral, or fossil. Information is provided about the cube's shape, hardness, color and streak, density, cleavage and fracture. Students are given the opportunity to test the cube's streak, hardness and density and the cube is compared to a gold nugget. Facts are given for 10 different rocks. Included in this site is a geologic timeline, questions and answers about rocks and fossils, and additional links.
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Students with real mineral samples can use this online mineral identification key to determine which minerals they have in hand. After clicking to answer up to four questions about a mineral, students are presented with a chart containing names and descriptions of the physical properties of possible identities of their mineral. Prior to the appearance of the chart, the key takes a dichotomous form with students answering questions about the luster, color, hardness, and cleavage of their mineral. Instructions are provided on the first page of the key, and the Mineral Properties link connects to explanations of the properties such as luster, streak, hardness, and specific gravity.
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Copyright
April 2008 — The Ohio State University. This material is based upon work
supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0424671. Any
opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this
material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of
the National Science Foundation.
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