My Earth Science class started a lab on identifying minerals today (8/30/2010). They had to start with trying to make observations of ink stamps (yes that is right, if they can't identify things they are comfortable with then identifying minerals will be very uncomfortable for them). Students found that it was difficult to come up with categories for organizing the characteristics of the stamps, and that if their discriptions were not detailed, no one could indentify the stamp they used. I'm hoping this makes them take the mineral identification process seriously. We will finish the lab later this week, and see how many groups are able to indetify their minerals by observing the physical proterties of the mineral they are given.
Once we finish the lab I will post more pictures, but for now here is a picture of the minerals we are trying to identify, as well as some of the supplies we will use to identify them.
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