STC: Rocks and Minerals

1. STC: Rocks and Minerals Lesson 13: Comparing Samples of the Same Mineral Sulfur • Enduring Understandings: • Each mineral is composed of only one substance, and that substance is the same in all samples of the mineral. • Minerals differ in color, texture, smell, luster, transparency, hardness, shape, and reaction to magnets. • The properties of rocks and minerals determine how they are used.

2. Think and Wonder You have now learned a lot about each of the 12 minerals in your set. But what about the minerals your friends have been exploring? Do you think their minerals look just the same as yours? o

3. Review How could you describe each mineral so that someone else could pick it out of a collection of minerals? Are there some properties that are not helpful in describing the 12 minerals? What properties are most useful in describing each of the 12 minerals? o

4. Materials Manager: • Two hand lenses • Two pairs of disposable gloves • One set of 12 minerals in an egg carton • One cardboard tray o

5. Discover the Mineral: 1. One person will give one property of a mineral from their recording sheet. Can we pick the right one? 2. Keep revealing one property at a time until we are sure it’s the correct mineral. o

6. Join three teams together to make 6 geologists. • Compare the three samples of your individual minerals. • How are they the same as you previously recorded? • How are they different from what you previously recorded? o

7. Brainstorm a list of properties that all minerals share. Minerals

8. Link to LRB In your Laboratory Record Book: Let’s look at our class lists entitled “What We Know about Minerals” and “What We Want to Know about Minerals.” Do you know the answers to some of the questions? Do you still have questions? o

9. Materials Manager: Please return all materials to the distribution center. o

10. Link to LRB In your Laboratory Record Book: Update your Table of Contents o