Mineral Mystery Lab

Lower-level undergraduates (both majors and non-majors) in an introductory lab course.

No required prior knowledge related to mineral identification, but the instructor may choose to assign a reading on the industrial uses of various minerals. The students will ideally have completed a prior lab that included a guided inquiry component.

This is a stand-alone exercise.

Students will use physical properties to identify minerals and become familiar with the properties of ten different minerals.

Students will construct a flow chart to identify minerals.

Students will work in pairs and small groups. They will provide constructive feedback about the flow chart of another group.

Materials Required:

• Toolkits (1 kit per 2 students): Hardness kit (penny, iron nail, and glass plate), streak plate, eye dropper bottle of HCl, hand lens, stereo microscope (if available), and magnet (optional). (Note: if you cannot obtain enough toolkits for 1 set per 2 students, Step 1 can be modified so that students work in their small group of 4–5 instead of separating into pairs. The student handout will need to be modified so that students have the correct instructions.)
• Set of 10 numbered minerals to use with identification tools and chart creation (ideally 1 set per 2 students). (Note: if you cannot obtain enough kits for 1 set per 2 students, Step 1 can be modified so that students work in their small group of 4–5 instead of separating into pairs. The student handout will need to be modified so that students have the correct instructions.)
  • Our suggested minerals: Mineral 1 = K-feldspar; Mineral 2 = muscovite; Mineral 3 = halite; Mineral 4 = fluorite; Mineral 5 = hematite; Mineral 6 = quartz; Mineral 7 = calcite; Mineral 8 = hornblende; Mineral 9 = galena; Mineral 10 = garnet (almandine)
    o If you cannot obtain some of these minerals, some suggestions for substitutions are biotite instead of muscovite, sylvite instead of halite, magnetite instead of hematite, dolomite instead of calcite, another amphibole group mineral such as tremolite or actinolite instead of hornblende, pyrite instead of galena, and another garnet group mineral such as grossular, andradite, or pyrope instead of almandine
  • Ward's Science sells a 12-sample mineral kit that includes apatite, calcite, graphite, halite, hematite, limonite, microcline, muscovite, olivine, pyrite, quartz, and selenite: https://www.wardsci.com/store/product/8877982/ward-s-introductory-mineral-collection
• Set of 5 mineral samples that look slightly different from the minerals in the set of 10 (1 set per 4–5 students)
  • Our suggested minerals: Yellow/blue calcite (contrasted with white/clear calcite in the set of 10); plagioclase feldspar (contrasted with microcline feldspar in the set of 10); quartz that is a different color than the quartz in the set of 10 or that displays or does not display its crystal form; a different garnet group mineral than the one in the set of 10 such as spessartine, uvarovite, grossular, etc.; specular or earthy hematite (whichever is not part of the set of 10)
  • Our suggested minerals if you use the Ward's Science kit: yellow or blue calcite (contrasted with white/clear calcite in the set of 10); amazonite (contrasted with microcline in the set of 10); earthy hematite (contrasted with specular hematite in the set of 10); quartz that is a different color than the quartz in the set of 10 or that displays or does not display its crystal form; apatite that is a different color than the apatite in the set of 10 or that displays or does not display its crystal form
• Post-Its or index cards labelled with 1, 2, 3, etc. (alternatively, mark each mineral in each set using white-out and a pen)
• Student Handout for Mineral Mystery Lab (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 695kB Jul27 21)
• Instructor Notes for Mineral Mystery Lab (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 23kB Jul27 21)
• Inquiry Labs Information Sheet for Mineral Mystery Lab (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 19kB Jul27 21)
• Mineral Physical Properties (Acrobat (PDF) 687kB Jul27 21)
   

See the 'Instructor Notes' file.

This lab does not include an answer key because grading is subjective and also depends on which minerals the instructor chooses to have students identify. To determine if students have met the goals of this activity, the instructor should gauge if the student responded logically and thoughtfully to all questions. The instructor should be explicit about their expectations. For example, Qs 1-2 in Step 1 include space for three different physical characteristics that are used to distinguish between minerals and three potential groupings. Some instructors may want students to attempt to group the minerals in three different ways, while other instructors may be satisfied with two different ways. Ideally, each instructor would modify the student handout to specify their expectations for questions in which there can be variation.

There are no required resources for this lab, but instructors may find it helpful to refer to the following sources:

• Textbook resource: Klein, C., & Dutrow, B. (2007). Manual of Mineral Science. Wiley.
• Mineral properties: https://www.mindat.org/
• Mineral properties: http://webmineral.com/
• Identifying minerals: https://isgs.illinois.edu/outreach/geology-resources/using-characteristics-minerals-identify-them#:~:text=to%20Identify%20Them-,Using%20Characteristics%20of%20Minerals%20to%20Identify%20Them,cleavage%2C%20fracture%2C%20and%20tenacity
• Mineral basics: https://geology.com/minerals/what-is-a-mineral.shtml
• Buck et al. (2008) levels of inquiry: https://www.chem.purdue.edu/towns/Towns%20Publications/Bruck%20Bretz%20Towns%202008.pdf