Short Readings from the American Mineralogist: Sneaky Tools for Teaching Scientific Reading Comprehension and Mineralogical Concepts

Kurt Hollocher

Union College

This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Teaching Activities collection and has been reviewed by 1 other review process (view details)

This activity was selected for the On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Teaching Collection

Resources in this top level collection a) must have scored Exemplary or Very Good in all five review categories, and must also rate as "Exemplary" in at least three of the five categories. The five categories included in the peer review process are
- Scientific Accuracy
- Alignment of Learning Goals, Activities, and Assessments
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For more information about the peer review process itself, please see https://serc.carleton.edu/teachearth/activity_review.html.
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.

Initial Publication Date: May 9, 2008 | Reviewed: November 2, 2013 (see revision history: 2 events)

Summary

This activity uses short, well-written articles to enhance teaching for a mineralogy course. Articles are taken from the American Mineralogist journal.

Crystallography, Crystal Chemistry, Mineral Analysis, X-ray ...(more) | College Lower (13-14), College Upper (15-16)

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Topics

Crystallography, Crystal Chemistry, Mineral Analysis, X-ray Techniques, Optical Mineralogy, Physical Properties, Phase Equilibria/Thermodynamics, Environmental Mineralogy, Biomineralogy, Mineralogy, Environmental Geology

Grade Level

College Lower (13-14), College Upper (15-16)

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Context

Audience

This activity is designed for an undergraduate required course in mineralogy and is generally for sophomore or junior level students.

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

Students should be able to comprehend the basic ideas presented in an article and should be able to find further resources to understand concepts not immediately clear to them.

How the activity is situated in 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

This activity aids students in comprehending scientific literature and applications of mineralogical principles in order to further their understanding of mineralogy.

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

This activity should strengthen the student's ability to critically read scientific literature.

Other skills goals for this activity

Critical thinking skills and synthesizing and writing about information gleaned from scientific articles are emphasized with this activity.

Description of the activity/assignment

This activity is designed to enhance student comprehension of mineralogy and its applications by having students read scientific articles from the journal American Mineralogist, answer questions, and discuss the article in class.

Determining whether students have met the goals

Students have met the goals of this activity if they demonstrate that they have comprehended the scientific article through thorough answers to the reading thought questions and during classroom discussion.

More information about assessment tools and techniques.

Teaching materials and tips

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Other Materials

Assignment description, hand outs, and instructor's notes. (Microsoft Word 18kB Apr29 08)

Assignment description, hand outs, and instructor's notes. (Acrobat (PDF) 34kB May3 08) Same file as above but as a pdf version.

Supporting references/URLs

Brady, J., Mogk, D. W., and Perkins, D., (editors), 1997, Teaching Mineralogy, a workbook published by the Mineralogical Society of America, 406 pp.

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