Freeze distillation of hard apple cider: A phase diagram demonstration part of Teaching Activities
William Peck, Colgate University
If you are lucky enough to teach Petrology in a part of the world with a cold winter, freeze distillation of hard apple cider works well as a class demonstration when the cider is frozen overnight outside. The slow ...

The use of visualization and sketches of thin sections to encourage a better understanding of phase diagrams: Binary and ternary phase diagram exercises part of Petrology:Teaching Examples
Jennifer M. Wenner and Drew S. Coleman
In these homework exercises, students manipulate two- and three- component phase diagrams. At various points during their interpretation of melting or crystallization of a composition, they are asked to ...

Calculating a Simple Phase Diagram: Diamond=Graphite part of Petrology:Teaching Examples
Dexter Perkins, University of North Dakota-Main Campus
This is a very short exercise designed to get students to understand how the Gibbs energy equation is used to calculate the location of a reaction in P-T space. I use it in-class and have students work on it in ...

T-X Phase Diagrams part of Petrology:Teaching Examples
Dexter Perkins, University of North Dakota-Main Campus
This is a 15 page tutorial and problem set designed to get students familiar with T-X diagrams, their implications, and uses.

Atmospheric Vertical Structure and the First Law of Thermodynamics part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Anthony Hansen, Saint Cloud State University
This set of homework problems is intended to help students begin to discover the importance and utility of conservation principles derived from the First Law of Thermodynamics and provide a first step in evolving from the p-V diagrams the students have seen in their physics coursework toward the thermodynamic diagrams used in meteorology.

Introduction to Gibbs Energy part of Petrology:Teaching Examples
Dexter Perkins, University of North Dakota-Main Campus
This is a short project that can be used in-class or as homework. It involves just a few questions and it is intended to help students understand the idea of Gibbs free energy.

Learning Thermodynamics and Using Spreadsheets part of Petrology:Teaching Examples
Sumit Chakraborty and Somnath Dasgupta
These files contain a set of three Excel files to balance mineral reactions, to explore variation of thermodynamic properties as a function of P, T and composition and to explore stability of different mineral ...

Simple Peritectic Exercise: Leucite-Quartz part of Petrology:Teaching Examples
Dexter Perkins, University of North Dakota-Main Campus
This can be done as an in-class exercise (I use it as a group project) or as homework. It is intended to help students learn how to interpret and use peritectic diagrams.

Three Component Systems and Their Reactions part of Petrology:Teaching Examples
Dexter Perkins, University of North Dakota-Main Campus
This exercise involves plotting mineral compositions on triangular (3-component diagrams) and using those diagrams to determine possible mineral reactions.

Plotting Compositions in 2-D and 3-D Space part of Petrology:Teaching Examples
Dexter Perkins, University of North Dakota-Main Campus
This is a fairly short exercise that can be used for an in-class cooperative learning project or as homework. It includes LOTS of explanation and so is sort of a tutorial. I use it in my petrology class because it ...