Autumn Rhodes
Student Chapter President
West Virginia University

Going With the Flow

YEA Activities

Getting Back to Nature

And the Winners Are ...

Reaching Out

Back to School

A Family Affair

Going With the Flow

Passion + Geology = Normal

Teaching the Teachers

The lesson plan I've worked on is geared more for fourth-sixth graders -- I got this idea from Tom Repine, who also works at the West Virginia Geological Survey.

I have a mineral identification flow chart that helps kids see the process of identifying minerals. Before I pass out the chart, I give them some minerals (like quartz, barite, muscovite, and graphite) and ask them to describe them.

After a few minutes, I write down the characteristics on the board (color is usually the first thing that comes to mind). Then I give them some more minerals that look a little bit like the minerals they already have, like biotite, galena and magnetite, and tell them that it's not so easy to tell the minerals apart now based on color.

Then you try to get them to think of ways of classifying the minerals. They should be able to come up with a few good classification schemes and you can write the results on the board.

I then pass out the identification flow chart and some more similarly colored minerals. It starts with metallic and non-metallic minerals and breaks it down. At the bottom it lists the minerals in the kits and some distinguishing characteristics of each to properly identify them.

The point of the demo is that geologists use a method to identify minerals -- not just using color.