Mineral Classification

Joseph Smyth

University of Colorado at Boulder

This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Peer Reviewed Teaching Activities collection.

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Scientific Accuracy
Alignment of Learning Goals, Activities, and Assessments
Pedagogic Effectiveness
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This page first made public: Jul 8, 2009

Summary

This homework assignment challenges students to determine the chemical classification of minerals based on their chemical formula. Students must also provide the valences of the various cations for oxygen-bearing minerals.

Crystal Chemistry, Geology | College Lower (13-14), College Upper (15-16)

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Context

Audience

This problem set is used as the first problem set in an undergraduate mineralogy course for geology majors.

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

Students should have a basic understanding of introductory chemistry.

How the activity is situated in the course

This problem set is a stand-alone homework assignment.

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

Determining classifications of minerals based on their chemical formulas
Determining valences for cations based on chemical formulas

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

Other skills goals for this activity

Description of the activity/assignment

This problem set challenges students to determine the chemical classification of minerals based on their chemical formula (provided). For oxygen-bearing minerals, students must also provide the valences of the various cations.

Determining whether students have met the goals

Students have met the goals of this activity if they complete it correctly.

More information about assessment tools and techniques.

Teaching materials and tips

Activity Description/Assignment (Acrobat (PDF) 66kB Jul7 09)
Solution Set (Acrobat (PDF) 83kB Jul7 09)

Other Materials

Supporting references/URLs

This problem set is the 1^st of 10 homework assignments used in a Mineralogy course.
You can also access the course syllabus ( This site may be offline. ) which includes lecture Powerpoints, practice exams, and links to the other problem sets used in this course.

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