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. ...

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, ...

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.

Modeling Exsolution (and Perthite Formation) as an Example of Complex-System Behavior part of Complex Systems:Teaching Activities
Dave Mogk, Montana State University-Bozeman; Barb Dutrow, Louisiana State University
Students use a physical model, computer simulation, examples from the natural world, visualizations, and overarching thought experiments to explore this phenomenon. Exsolution embodies attributes of a complex ...

Deciphering Mineral Structure Diagrams part of Spatial Thinking Workbook:Teaching Activities
Carol Ormand Ph.D., Carleton College
Students compare mineral structures shown in ball-and-stick, space filling, and polyhedral diagrams.

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, ...

Calculating Compositional Variation and Common Substitutions for Igneous and Metamorphic Minerals part of Petrology:Teaching Examples
Dave Mogk, Montana State University-Bozeman
This problem set uses Excel spreadsheets to calculate mineral formulae from analytical data (typically from the electron microprobe) using a variety of formulations that assume numerous variations of crystal ...

Determining Mantle Temperature and Composition from Discontinuities part of Deep Earth:Activities
Anna Courtier, University of Wisconsin-Madison
This pair of activities uses observations of mantle discontinuity structure to examine mantle heterogeneity and differences in the depth extent of melt sources for ridges and "hotspots." The first ...

What Goes into Making Volcanic Arc Magmas, and How Do We Know It? part of MARGINS Data in the Classroom:MARGINS Mini-Lessons
Jeff Ryan, University of South Florida-St. Petersburg
This activity is a directed reading exercise focused on papers that have been key to our understanding of the major source contributors to subduction zone volcanic rocks.

Phase Diagrams part of Activities
Joseph Smyth, University of Colorado at Boulder
Students are given a simplified temperature-composition phase diagram for the system enstatite (Mg2Si2O6) - diopside (CaMgSi2O6), and asked to interpret it by answering a series of questions.

Properties of Light part of Activities
Joseph Smyth, University of Colorado at Boulder
This problem set tests students understanding of the properties of light, including velocity, frequency, reflection, and refraction.

Mineral Classification part of Activities
Joseph Smyth, University of Colorado at Boulder
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 ...

Point Groups part of Activities
Joseph Smyth, University of Colorado at Boulder
This mineralogy problem set tasks students with determining the point group Hermann-Mauguin symbol and crystal system for crystal stereograms.

Coupled Substitutions part of Activities
Joseph Smyth, University of Colorado at Boulder
Students calculate the composition of minerals in weight percent given relative proportions of given end members. Students must also calculate mole percentages for feldspars based on their mineral analyses.

Space Group Symmetry part of Activities
Joseph Smyth, University of Colorado at Boulder
This assignment tasks students with determining symmetry axes and identifying Hermann-Mauguin symbols for space groups based on a symmetry diagram.