Classroom, Lab and Field Activities

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Mineral Identification part of Teach the Earth:Teaching Activities
Katryn Wiese, City College of San Francisco
Mineral Identification online (developed for remote learning during COVID-19 pandemic); students will explore the various characteristics of minerals and then apply them to identify unknowns.

Creating a Partial Pressure Diagram for the Cu-CO2-O2-H2O System part of Teach the Earth:Teaching Activities
Terri Woods, East Carolina University
Students will be guided through the procedure for creating a partial-pressure diagram in the low-temperature system Cu-CO2-O2-H2O system for the minerals cuprite, tenorite, native copper, azurite, and malachite. ...

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Crossword Puzzles to Review Mineral Concepts part of Activities
Laura Wetzel, Eckerd College
Students complete a crossword puzzle to review the physical properties of minerals that are helpful in hand specimen identification. Mineral names and characteristics are particularly well-suited for a crossword format. Two versions are provided, one at an introductory level and one for more advanced undergraduates. Instructor files provided are easy to customize.

Rock & Mineral Bingo part of NAGT:Our Resources:Teaching Resources:Teaching Materials Collection
Kate Pound, North Hennepin Community College
This is a rock and mineral 'Bingo' that is based on knowledge and skill (not luck). It was designed as an entertaining and interactive means of developing and improving student rock and mineral ...

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Feldspar Mineral Chemistry Using the FCAEM Remotely Operable Electron Probe Micro-Analyzer. part of Activities
Sven Holbik and Rosemary Hickey-Vargas, Florida International University
This lab uses the remote operation of an Electron Probe Micro-Analysis (EPMA) available through the Florida Center for Analytical Electron Microscopy (FCAEM; https://fcaem.fiu.edu/), at Florida International University, Miami, to explore feldspar mineral chemistry. This lab explores detailed mineral chemistry, data normalization, and plotting compositional ranges on ternary diagrams suitable as an introductory assignment in a Mineralogy, Earth Materials, or Petrology course. This instructor-led interactive demonstration of remote Electron Microprobe use introduces students to microprobe analysis, x-ray analytical techniques, standardization, image analysis, normalization, mineral formulas and composition. The instructor can acquire images (optional) of samples containing feldspar (provided by FCAEM or instructor's samples) then select multiple points for analysis. This activity captivates student's attention and provides a hands-on instrument-led approach to introducing undergraduate students to chemical analysis and vital concepts in mineralogy and petrology.

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Understanding Polyhedral Diagrams part of Spatial Thinking Workbook:Teaching Activities
Carol Ormand Ph.D., Carleton College
Students identify individual polyhedra in a variety of diagrams and answer questions about shared oxygens in diagrams of common silicate structures.

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Identifying Symmetry in 2-D Drawings part of Activities
Dexter Perkins, University of North Dakota-Main Campus
These three activities are problem sets that make students think about symmetry in 2-D. They all involve identifying symmetry from drawings. I purposely omitted jargony words/phrases such as lattice, unit cell, ...

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Petrographic Microscope Home Kit for Smartphones part of Teach the Earth:Teaching Activities
Lynne Elkins, University of Nebraska at Lincoln
This is a useful set of design instructions to build a home microscope kit for illustrating the properties of polarizing/petrographic microscopes with a smartphone camera. It can be used for any number of class ...

Virtual Lab: "Big Nine" Silicates in Thin Section part of Teach the Earth:Teaching Activities
Catherine Macris, Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis
This virtual lab activity uses Virtual Microscope to help students create their own ranked lists of diagnostic properties for the "Big Nine" silicate minerals/groups, which includes quartz, muscovite, ...

Virtual field trip to Giant's Causeway, Ireland part of Cutting Edge:Enhance Your Teaching:Teaching with Online Field Experiences:Activities
Jill Schneiderman, Vassar College
This online assignment takes the students on a virtual field trip to Giant's Causeway in northern Ireland. It begins with a brief video of the geological site, includes some questions relevant to the history ...

The Nature of Science and Scientific Fraud part of GeoEthics:Activities
Dexter Perkins, University of North Dakota-Main Campus
Dexter Perkins, University of North Dakota Summary 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, ...

Is it a Mineral? part of NAGT:Our Resources:Teaching Resources:Teaching Materials Collection
Sara Harris, University of British Columbia

Exploring the Uniaxial Indicatrix part of Activities
Sarah Penniston-Dorland, University of Maryland-College Park
This activity gives the students a 3-dimensional perspective on the uniaxial indicatrix, its various parts, and the relationship between different orientations of the indicatrix and the corresponding optical ...

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Gestures for Miller Indices part of Spatial Thinking Workbook:Teaching Activities
Carol Ormand Ph.D., Carleton College
Students use one hand to gesture crystallographic axes and the other hand to represent planes designated by Miller Indices.

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Introduction to Mineral Identification part of Geoscience in Two-year Colleges:Activities
Suki Smaglik, Laramie County Community College
The exercise uses an inquiry-based approached to overcome the fear of tackling mineral identification. Few instructions are given and students discover for themselves how to approach identification.

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