First Look at Crystal Shapes

Dexter Perkins

University of North Dakota

This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Peer Reviewed Teaching Activities collection. (view details)

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Scientific Accuracy
Alignment of Learning Goals, Activities, and Assessments
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Initial Publication Date: August 7, 2006 | Reviewed: December 15, 2014 (see revision history: 2 events)

Summary

This is a short and simple exercise requiring students to examine and compare different crystal shapes.

Crystallography, Mineralogy | College Lower (13-14), College Upper (15-16)

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Context

Audience

This exercise is designed for a mid/upper-level undergraduate geology course on the principles of mineralogy.

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

Students should have knowledge of basic chemistry and of minerals equivalent to what they would learn in an introductory geology class.

How the activity is situated in the course

This activity is the 9th of 36 mineralogy exercises and is used towards the beginning of the course.

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

Think about ways to describe and classify crystal shapes.
Contemplate the significance of crystal shape.

Other skills goals for this activity

Description of the activity/assignment

This is a short and simple exercise requiring students to examine and compare different crystal shapes. Cardboard models and wooden blocks are used as ideal representations of real crystals. Students examine the representations and determine what shape properties they have in common. They then discuss what it means if crystals of different minerals share some shape properties.