Mineralogy #4 - From Ore to More

You can't talk about mineralogy without talking about mining. A real treasure trove of excellent, hands-on activities relating to rocks and minerals and mining and more are these educational activities from Women in Mining. I used many of them at different points during our geology unit.

One really great activity for understanding the entire process of mining from exploration to mining to processing to manufacturing to consumption to recycling/reclaiming is "Mining in a Nutshell".

From exploring, locating, and mapping minerals (color coded peanuts)...

...to manufacturing and consuming the minerals (homemade peanut butter!)

Living in Utah, an obvious field trip would be to the Visitors Center at the Kennecott Copper Mine. We have been there before, but the years that have passed definitely make a current trip there warranted. However, a small earthquake has unfortunately made the area unsafe and visitors are not allowed there at the time of this posting (and our unit). Since we cannot visit the mine in person, we took advantage of the really great Rio Tinto Kennecott Copper Mine Virtual Tour, that includes this super video: 

We followed this up with "A Penny's Secret" activity from Women in Mining.


Other sites that we used for discussion and notebooking:  "Finding Minerals",  "Why Do We Mine?", "Your House Came from a Mine", "Simplified World Mining Map", "Mining", "Mineral Resources from the Ocean".


And because I found the current debate about mining the moon interesting, we discussed these articles:  "Mining the Moon: The 21st Century Gold Rush", "Moon Mining Rush Ahead", "Mining the Moon

Mineralogy #3 - You Are What You Eat

The word mineral is most often paired in a phrase with two other words:  "rocks and minerals" and "vitamins and minerals." Therefore, if kids have been listening, they likely associate minerals with rocks, and perhaps with vitamins. However, there's a good chance that they don't realize a rock's minerals and the minerals partnering with vitamins are one in the same. What's more, they probably don't realize that their bodies are made of minerals as well. Here are the activities we did to learn more about all of this.

First, I assigned one of my children to do his own research and make and give a PowerPoint presentation on the minerals that are in our bodies and why we need them. He was also to create a worksheet for everyone to do during/after the presentation. This was a great introduction. 

We did a great experiment with Cereal Mineral Extraction, which was to turn an iron-fortified whole-grain cereal like Total into a liquid sludge and magnetically extract the iron particles out of it. 

Then we went on a field trip, which was a grocery mineral scavenger hunt. The kids spread out all over the grocery store and read product labels to find out what minerals were in what foods.

Fun fact:  pistachios contain copper.

We finished up by making a notebooking page called "I'm a Mineral Masterpiece" where the kids drew a picture of themselves and then wrote some facts we found like, "My body contains as much iron as six paper clips," "My body contains as much calcium as 340 sticks of chalk," etc.

Mineralogy #2 - GEODES!

There is nothing more intriguing than taking a plain, often ugly hunk of rock and breaking it open to find very cool crystals inside. It's like journeying to the center of the earth and finding secret hidden mines of gems. 

I ordered a Break Your Own Geode Kit that was complete with all sorts of information in addition to the dozen varied geodes which gave my three children four geodes each. After breaking them open they compared what was inside to the accompanying photo book to see what minerals/elements/crystals made up what was in their hands. This was a big hit.

Mineralogy #1 - Crystals & Gems

By definition, all minerals have a crystal shape. Geology meets Geometry when you study the crystal shapes of minerals. Atoms make elements, elements make minerals, and minerals make rocks; the definite regular, repeating patterns of the atomic arrangements in crystalline solid matter is what makes minerals (and crystals) so unique.

Here are the resources we used for learning about crystals and gems inside the world of minerals.

These 3D cut-and-assemble mineral shapes were perfect for getting hands on with 3D mineral shapes.

Fun crystal facts with worksheet and video was a good independent assignment.

Crystalline structure and gems activities and worksheets was packed with good stuff for really understanding it all.

I used this Cuts of gemstones page for information for a notebooking page, including the graphic of the different cuts. I pulled out some jewelry and we matched cuts and shapes.

History, photos, information galore on gemstones was super helpful for learning about mineral gems vs. organic gems and anything and everything we wanted to know and see about gemstones. I used it for information for notebooking pages as well as for just looking and matching stones, cuts, etc.

We also made a page for our notebooks using the scriptures Proverbs 8:10-11, Proverbs 3:13-15, and Proverbs 31:10. I gave the kids lots of sparkly, glittery fingernail polish to embellish their pages with.

She painted a book of scriptures as one of her embellishments.

Experiments:


Making Borax crystal snowflakes is easy and very cool. As you can see, I let my kids use whatever color pipe cleaner they wanted and they could make it into whatever shape they wanted as well. Each child did their own, including mixing their own solution.

It didn't take long at all for the solution to begin crystallization. 

When they were finished I hung them in a sunny window.

I love that the crystals were so large and sparkly in the sunshine.

We did other crystal experiments with Epsom salts, as well as making rock candy, and we did a few cheap kits with other minerals we found at the dollar store. Unfortunately I can't share photos of all the fun because these particular pictures are on a crashed hard drive.  :(  When playing with all these crystals it is important to make sure that your kids understand that sugar crystals are organic, not mineral.  

Washed Away! Erosion #9 - Resources

Here is a list of most of the resources I used for this unit. Remember that I am still using the other comprehensive geology books and websites mentioned in earlier posts as well.

Books
Weathering and Erosion (Looking at Landscapes) by Clive Gifford
Rivers (Mapping Earthforms) by Catherine Chambers
Canyonlands National Park (A New True Book) by David Petersen
Zion National Park (A New True Book) by David Petersen
Caves and Caverns by Gail Gibbons
Caves by Neil Morris
Planet Earth (Time Life Student Library)
The Legend of the Grand Canyon Retold by Gloria C. Sproul
(America's Top 10) Natural Wonders


Kids Discover Magazines
"The Grand Canyon"
"Glaciers"
"Antarctica"
"North and South Poles"


Videos
"Rocks and Rolls" episode of The Magic School Bus
The Dust Bowl, PBS, by Ken Burns
Ice Age in Utah PowerPoint by Utah Geological Survey

Game
"The Rock Hopping Game"  from Ellen McHenry


Websites
All About the Dust Bowl
Glaciers and Their Importance


Notebooking
The pages for our notebooks were a mixture of handwritten vocabulary, hand-drawn diagrams, and pages where we put pictures of our experiments and wrote about what was going on. We also used pages from the websites above, and from the Kids Discover magazines. Additionally we used worksheets on river systems, river review, and Ice Age/glacial landform flashcards.

Washed Away! Erosion #8 - Field Trip to Wind Cave

Wind Cave in Logan Canyon in northern Utah is a VERY cool place. Well, "cool" as in really neat. The hike itself, once the trail isn't a complete mud wash or still under snow, is a series of switchbacks on a very exposed south-facing mountain, so unless you go really early in the season or the morning, there is nothing "cool" about that part. 

This hike was perfect for our weathering and erosion unit, and not just because the destination was a series of rooms created by water and wind working on limestone. The trail has a perfect view of Logan Canyon, carved by the Logan River, and of the limestone "China Wall" that has been exposed as a result. We saw signs of erosion everywhere, from snow melt runoff-carved gullies to wiped out sections of mountain from rock slides, to damaging man-made erosion where people have worn away vegetation and earth by taking shortcuts instead of following the switchback trail.

I do love this hike, but at the top I get a little crazy. Visions of my kids going over the cliff fill me with anxiety. Should you decide to tackle this adventure, keep in mind that you do not want to do it in the middle of a summer day, no matter when you go you'll need plenty of water, and if you have young or hyper kids you'll want to be very careful when you reach the cave as the rock slopes downward (toward the drop) and there is loose rock and dirt covering that which makes it easy to slip.

Washed Away! Erosion #7 - Field Trip NHMU

Our second field trip for this unit was to the Natural History Museum of Utah. There was a lot there having to do with weathering and erosion, including an up close view of a glacier-carved valley right outside the window.

The kids couldn't get enough of the water erosion table.

We were also all very fascinated with the wind tunnel that continuously whipped sand and formed and reformed sand dunes.

The interactive model of Lake Bonneville over the years was good to see, too, since we always hear and read so much about it in many studies.

There was much more there that we enjoyed, and these were just a few of the geological exhibits to partake of. 

Washed Away! Erosion #6 - Field Trip to Pioneer Park

Weathering and erosion are a continuing shaping force of this planet. It is not hard to find places in which to explore them in action. We have been to numerous places all over the country where we have enjoyed the beauty and variety of landforms and landscapes created by weathering and erosion. For this unit, however, we specifically went to two places new to our family and one place new to the kids, and then we noticed and talked about signs of weathering and erosion at other places we just happened to be.

The first field trip was an exploration of Pioneer Park in St. George, Utah. We loved that no part of it was restricted and that we could climb all over it. 

We could easily see the weathering of sandstone in various stages.

The kids saw their dad atop a rock in the distance and ran down and climbed up to join him.

Can you see the serpent weathered into the rock?

This is a very cool place to visit. We enjoyed it immensely. From a kid's perspective, it just just good, physical fun. From a homeschooling mom's perspective, I loved being able to point out things we'd talked about that they could see up close in real life. So if you're ever in the area...

Washed Away! Erosion #5 - Language Arts

Any and every unit is filled with possibilities for Language Arts. Weathering and Erosion was no exception.

Our read aloud book was Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse. Prior to the book we watched some of Ken Burns's PBS documentary on the Dust Bowl and discussed the causes and effects of it all so we were familiar with that time and place before reading the book. 

The book is actually written as a free verse prose poem, but we didn't see that because we listened to it on CD. I liked that it was written from the perspective of a child, and it sounded like it. While it covers all the important and unique facets of life in the Dust Bowl, I found the story compelling, heartbreaking, and finally redemptive. It isn't for young children, though. 

Writing assignments included the following:

     *"Super 'Agent' of Erosion" is a creative writing assignment wherein students create a super agent who stops erosion and/or a villain who erodes. This is a great way to fire up kids' imaginations and writing skills while helping them solidify what they're learning about erosion.

     *After playing "The Rock Hopping Game", each child chose two famous weathered rocks to write a research report on.

     *We read a few Native American legends explaining the formation of places like the Grand Canyon and Devil's Tower and then the kids chose a place to write their own creative legend about.

Washed Away! Erosion #4 - Music & Art

This unit is the perfect time to get acquainted with Felix Mendelssohn's concert overture The Hebrides, also known as Fingal's Cave.  This piece was inspired by Mendelssohn's tour of the Scottish Hebrides archipelago and Fingal's Cave on the island of Staffa; he immediately had the motif for this musical tone poem in his head when he saw it and penned it on a postcard he sent to his sister. We first watched the following musical video of the entire piece and then the kids learned a shorter, simpler piano solo of Fingal's Cave.

Music was also incorporated into the unit with the song  "One Smooth Stone".

For art I wanted to do something unique and relevant. I decided we'd create pictures of weathering and erosion with an agent of weathering and erosion--sand! I found inexpensive colored sand and we got to creating. (I opened the bags of sand and put them in muffin tins for ease of access as well as cleanup.)

It's best to use card stock as your base. With a pencil, draw your weathered landform or landscape. Apply glue with a Q-tip, one section at a time.

Fold a large piece of paper in half and place under your art piece to reduce waste as well as mess. Apply sand to your glue-covered section a pinch at a time until covered, then shake excess off onto folded paper.

Return unused excess sand to its "bank" by letting it slide down the crease of the paper into its cup. (This is a great way to apply glitter to projects as well.)

Keep at it bit by bit. 

 Here is my first finished piece.