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Sand & Rock Sample Observations

This material was originally created for On the Cutting Edge: Professional Development for Geoscience Faculty
and is replicated here as part of the SERC Pedagogic Service.
Katherine Lee, College of the Redwoods
Course: Introductory Geology
25 students
The most effective way to develop geoscience skills in your students is to make opportunities for them to practice those skills.

The Activity

I set up binocular hand specimen scopes to view a coarse granitic sand. The students list the number of different minerals they think they see and give a brief physical description of each. I also give them two very different rocks and ask them to describe them. The focus is on learning observational skills.