Fun With Asbestos

Dexter Perkins

University of North Dakota

Author Profile

This activity has been reviewed by 2 review processes (view details)

This activity was peer reviewed prior to publication in the Teaching Mineralogy Workbook.

This teaching activity was originally published in: Brady, J., Mogk, D. W., and Perkins, D., (editors), 1997, "Teaching Mineralogy," a workbook published by the Mineralogical Society of America, 406 pp. All teaching activities in this volume received two external peer reviews from mineralogy faculty focused on content and pedagogy, and a final review by the co-editors to comply with the publication standards of the Mineralogical Society of America.
This activity was selected for the On the Cutting Edge Reviewed Teaching Collection

This activity has received positive reviews in a peer review process involving five review categories. The five categories included in the process are
- Scientific Accuracy
- Alignment of Learning Goals, Activities, and Assessments
- Pedagogic Effectiveness
- Robustness (usability and dependability of all components)
- Completeness of the ActivitySheet web page
For more information about the peer review process itself, please see https://serc.carleton.edu/teachearth/activity_review.html.

Initial Publication Date: August 7, 2006 | Reviewed: November 2, 2013 (see revision history: 2 events)

Summary

This exercise is a practical application of optical mineralogy involving identification of some asbestiform minerals.

Optical Mineralogy, Mineralogy | 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 17th of 36 mineralogy exercises and is used around the middle of the course. This activity is a stand-alone exercise, but is part of a larger volume of classroom and laboratory activities from "Teaching Mineralogy," a workbook published by the Mineralogical Society of America, Brady, J., Mogk, D. W., and Perkins, D., (editors), 1997,406 pp.

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

Learn about different properties that can be seen with an optical microscope. Relief, extinction angle, birefringence, etc., are observable in this exercise.
Become familiar with mineral properties in thin section.
Learn to distinguish asbsestiform and related minerals from each other.

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

Learn to sift through data in order to identify that which is key to solving a problem.

Other skills goals for this activity

Recognize practical and meaningful applications for petrography and science.

Description of the activity/assignment

This exercise is a practical application of optical mineralogy involving identification of some asbestiform minerals. First, students learn about asbestos and its various forms and are posed several related questions. Then, they look at several asbestos grain mounts under a petrographic microscope and answer more related questions.