I developed this assignment to engage students with geoscience content and explore how minerals impact their everyday lives. Minimal time is needed to implement this assignment.

Assignment Instructions:

For this assignment you will need to take a "selfie" with an everyday product or item that contains a mineral. In our Class Discussion Blog you will POST YOUR PICTURE and write your mineral description. Be sure to also include IDENTIFICATION INFO in your post:

1. Mineral Name and Chemical Composition
2. Physical Properties (Hardness, Luster, Cleavage, etc.)
3. Which rocks and/or type of environment might this mineral be found in?
4. How is the mineral being used in the product?

Once a mineral has been identified by a student in your lab section you can NO longer choose/identify that mineral, SO the earlier you complete this assignment the easier it will be for you. You could take a picture of a rock like granite but you will still need to identify a specific mineral in that rock.

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Students will examine mineral separates from sand samples collected from a number of rivers each of which drains a slightly different geologic terrane. Differences in mineralogic composition and mineral abundance will be used to suggest different provenance for each of the sand samples.
These sand samples may be treated as unknowns or the students may be informed of where the sand was sampled. At the end of the mineral separations and binocular microscope identification, the students may be allowed to consult geologic maps of the regions sampled to aid in their provenance determination.

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Minerals are our planet. They form the Earth and the bedrock that we live on, making up all of Earth’s rocks and sediments, and they are important components in soils. So, they literally are the foundations for our lives. Perhaps because they are ubiquitous, most people don’t even notice them or consider that all rock is made of minerals. But, engineers do because building a bridge or other structure on unstable material, or using poor ingredients for construction of all sorts, would lead to disasters. And, farmers care about minerals because healthy soils produce great crops. Petrologists who study rocks of all sorts need to know about minerals. And others who use resources in manufacturing need minerals. So, the world’s people rely on minerals. And, minerals, mineral production, and the study of minerals are absolutely essential to maintain our lifestyles.

There are two parts to this exercise but they are stand-alone if desired. The first part deals with the nature of science: what is science, what does it involve, and what makes science good? It is aimed at one particular paper but any paper could be used. The second part is about a heinous case of scientific fraud and the legal action associated with it. Probing questions make students think about the most important factors, implications, and questions.

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This activity is a Web investigation and research exercise starting with the 2003-present Anatahan volcanic eruptions in the Mariana arc, and concluding with a petrologic examination of published Mariana arc lavas data sets.

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Free Open Educational Resources for the Geosciences. The landing page provides links to three textbooks designed for use with introductory courses in Physical Geology, Historical Geology, and Mineralogy. Content contained within each of these books can be utilized across many related courses. The text is written as much as possible at a high school level. Interactive content and quizzes are sprinkled throughout for a better student experience.

Geology 101 Introductory Geology at Albion College meets the Science Mode requirement through which students learn the process of science and the impact of geology on their own lives. To help students achieve these goals, we devised multiple-week projects to serve as the culmination of each half of the semester, replacing traditional lab exams. One of these is the ore exploration game, which requires students to integrate material covered in 6 weeks of lectures and labs on minerals, rocks, structures and topographic and geologic maps and to apply what they have learned to a practical problem. Students divide into teams or "mineral exploration companies" of 3 to 4 members. They are given rules for the game, an exploration budget, a geologic map, a set of rock samples keyed to the map, and worksheets to fill out as they collect information.Their assignment is to use this information to locate ore bodies both exposed and hidden and acquire the rights to these through an auction on the last day of the project. In week 1, they identify and describe samples, label structures on the map, draw cross sections, and develop a geologic history. In week 2, the groups buy geochemical and drill hole data and use these along with the geology to locate and describe ore bodies. By the end of this lab, each group will have described at least one kind of ore. Deposits are hidden with varying degrees of subtlety, allowing all students to find some ore and the best to demonstrate their abilities. In week 3, students hand in completed maps and cross sections (done as teams), and a geologic history of the area that includes descriptions of samples and structures as well as interpretations of their environments of formation, along with a two-page paper on the ore deposits (papers and histories written as individuals). Groups use the funds left in their exploration budget to bid on squares of the map they believe contain ore. To be successful, students must approach the problem as geologists, going beyond simple rock and structure identification to interpretation of rock assemblages in the context of a geologic map and synthesis of these interpretations into a coherent narrative history.

This three part lab introduces sulfides and other ore minerals.

Part one - Ore Minerals: Students fill in a table giving the metal, formula, and mineral group of several ore minerals.
Part two - Box of Rocks: Students examine trays of ore minerals and record their physical properties, composition, habit, occurence, economic value, and use and answer questions about color, luster, density, transparency, and availability.
Part three - Famous Digs: Students answer a series of questions related to famous ore deposits.

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In this multi-week project, students collect samples in the field, analyze them using various tools and instruments, then present their results and interpretations.

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This is a short exercise that introduces basic thermodynamics. Students write the formulas for grossular, quartz, anorthite, and wollastonite. Then they answer questions and make calculations related to thermodynamics, phase equilibria, and the above minerals.

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In this short exercise, students examine the plagioclase phase diagram and answer questions about melt composition, temperature and cooling, crystalization, and melt:crystal ratios.

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This exercise involves identifying symmetry in crystals and using that information to assign crystals to crystal systems and point groups. Students examine cardboard models and wooden blocks and fill their symmetry elements into a table. Then they figure out what what crystal system and point group each sample belongs to and fill in another table.

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In this semester-long private mineral project, students become experts on one mineral. They write a paper about their mineral and use key information about it to publish a web page. Information should include provenance, physical properties, composition, recent related literature, photos of samples, optical properties, x-ray pattern, crystallography, economic value, atomic structure, other closely related minerals, associated myths, and a complete list of references based on GSA format.

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This problem set is used as a homework assignment to assess students' understanding of the properties of light. Students are asked to calculate velocity through media with different index of refractions, wavelengths, frequencies, and reflection/refraction behaviors.

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Students examine a number of key mineral properties and how they are displayed by different minerals. Mineral properties examined include crystal habit, cleavage, parting, fracture, hardness, tenacity, specific gravity, luster, color, and streak.

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This three-part exercise continues the study of minerals' physical properties and introduces petrographic microscopes. In part one, students identify minerals using a given list of minerals. In part two, students their text and newly aquired mineral identification skills to identify unknown minerals. In part three, students are introduced to the petrographic microscope and answer several related questions.

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One of the goals of my Mineralogy class is to demonstrate how the principles and content covered in class can be applied to questions of geologic interest or that have practical applications to society or industry. This is an early step towards introducing students to authentic research projects. The general theme of these projects is characterization of Earth materials, and typically involves collection of samples in the field (if possible), hand sample observation, petrographic analysis, and further analysis using X-ray powder diffraction and electron beam techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and back-scattered electron (BSE) imaging and elemental analysis using energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS).

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Students choose a project on an area of the geosciences in which one or more mineral's chemistry and/or crystal structure is significant to understanding that geoscience problem. They then study that mineral in detail in both hand sample and on the SEM, XRF, XRD, and/or in thin section. Students may provide your own sample or use a sample from the student collection. For practicality sake, the sample must be available and not so valuable or rare that we cannot let you use pieces of it for the project. Additionally, the mineral studied in detail must be significantly different than those they will be tested on for the final exam.

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In this three-part exercise, students study hand samples and thin sections of sedimentary minerals and rocks.

Part one - Box of Rocks: Students examine a tray of Halides, Carbonates, Borates, and Clays and record their physical properties, composition, habit, and occurence. They note chemical and physical similarities and differences of the minerals.
Part two - Definitions: Define a list of terms relevent to the lab.
Part three - Minerals in Thin Section: Observe sedimentary minerals in thin section and answer questions about them.

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A mineralogical, petrological, and geophysical exploration of the role of serpentinite in subduction zones, as highlighted in the two NSF-MARGINS Subduction Factory focus sites.

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