Catology: adding fun to mineralogy and petrology

These materials were developed for a required undergraduate course on Earth materials (combined mineralogy, igneous petrology and metamorphic petrology).

Students typically enter my Earth materials course with minimal geological and chemical knowledge. Due to this, the materials can be inserted into classes or activities where each topic is introduced.

The cat-based materials are inserted into PowerPoint slides introducing each specific topic.

• Crystallography: types of symmetry
• Silicate Structures and Solid Solution
• Phase Diagrams and Thermodynamics
• Melt Crystallization and Binary Diagrams
• Melt Crystallization and Ternary Diagrams.

The goals of the cat-based materials are to improve student engagement with the topics and to develop conceptual models to be able to describe and apply a range of geoscience concepts.

These materials should help students describe and apply a range of geoscience concepts. Students should be able to:

• Describe the types of symmetry that result in the 32-point groups and seven crystal systems (in European terms).
• Explain how crystal structures can affect compositional variation through solid solution.
• Apply the principles of thermodynamics to interpreting phase diagrams.
• Interpret crystallization and melt sequences from binary and ternary diagrams.

Teaching a required Earth materials class (combined mineralogy and petrology) is tough in a liberal arts environment when students enter with minimal knowledge. My rescued cat, Lucky, inspired me to develop a series of materials using her and cartoon cats to illustrate concepts that students particularly struggled with.

Cats are the ultimate meme and as such can be used as analogies to help students build conceptual models of geoscience concepts through 'catology'. Photos and videos of Lucky, along with the specific cat-based materials help improve student engagement, grades and interest by non-geoscience STEM majors.

The PowerPoints contain the cat-based materials divided by topic: crystallography, solid solution, phase diagrams & thermodynamics, melt crystallization in binary, and ternary diagrams. These can be inserted into pre-existing materials to help students with understanding the concepts through use of these analogies to build conceptual models.

A fuller description of these materials and evaluation of how they improved engagement, enrollment and student grades is within Hunt, E.J. (in review). Teaching through Catology: a cat inspired pedagogical approach for a course in Earth Materials, submitted to Journal of Geoscience Education.

Crystallography and Cats (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 17.2MB Jun23 26)
Mineral Chemistry and Cats (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 21.5MB Jun23 26) 
Mineral Reactions in Phase Diagrams and Cats (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 64.7MB Jun23 26) 
Binary Diagrams and Melt Crystallization with Cats (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 2MB Jun23 26) 
Ternary Diagrams and Melt Crystallization with Cats (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 3.6MB Jun23 26)

These PowerPoints can be inserted into existing teaching materials. Specific teaching notes are included in each file, along with specific learning outcomes related to the material.

Students are formatively assessed through take-away assignments and tests. Existing class materials can be used to assess whether the goals were met.

• Binary Phase Diagrams.https://serc.carleton.edu/research_education/equilibria/binary_diagrams.html
• Perkins (2006) https://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/petrology/teaching_examples/11685.html
• Perkins (2020), Introduction to Mineralogy. https://opengeology.org/Mineralogy/
• Ternary Phase Diagrams. https://serc.carleton.edu/research_education/equilibria/ternary_diagrams.html
• Winter, Symmetry I: https://www.whitman.edu/geology/winter/JDW_MinClass.htm