Educational Resources for Teaching Mineralogy

The pages below contain activities and supporting educational material for teaching mineralogy. These sites include both links to SERC resources as well as other to helpful material from the World Wide Web.
  • Internet Resources- a collection of useful web-based learning materials, browseable by topics.
  • Optical Mineralogy and Petrography - a collection of teaching resources and activities that include PowerPoint presentations, animations, class notes, problem sets and activities, and links to collections of photomicrographs.
  • Clay Mineralogy - a collection of resources on Teaching Clay Mineralogy with on-line resources and teaching activities that can be used in a variety of geology courses. This collection was developed to support the 2009 Clay Minerals Society Meeting.
  • Mineral Physics - a collection of on-line resources on Teaching Mineral Physics developed as a collaboration between On the Cutting Edge program and COMPRES , the Consortium for Materials Properties Research in Earth Sciences.
  • Teaching Crystal Symmetry Using Kinesthetic Learning - a set of web pages about how to teach crystal symmetry through traditional American square and contra dancing.

Integrating Research and Education

Backscatterd electron image of feldspar zoning
  • Teaching Mineralogy with Crystal Structure Databases and Visualization Software - this site will help educators to appreciate the benefits and challenges of using crystal structure databases in their mineralogy courses; locate potentially-useful crystal structure databases, highlighting differing strengths, features, ease of use, and potential educational applications; download, contribute, and comment on examples of how crystal structure databases can be applied in educational settings and activities (e.g., lectures, problem sets, in-class exercises, lab exercises, student research projects, etc.).
  • Teaching Phase Equilibria - This web-based learning resource provides a comprehensive introduction to heterogeneous phase equilibria in the geosciences. This site contains the essential background information needed to understand phase equilibria, links to related resources, examples of worked problems, and teaching activities.
  • Geochemical Instrumentation and Analysis - This project provides an on-line tutorial of the analytical techniques commonly used to characterize geological materials. The goal is to help novices (such as students or scientists working out of their field) to gain an understanding of mineralogical, petrological and geochemical analytical techniques.