Sorting Earth Materials as a Means to Explore Physical Properties of Rocks and Minerals
Abstract
During this in-class activity, students are divided into small groups (4-6 individuals) and given a bag of earth materials (rocks and minerals). The students are asked to carefully examine each of the samples and to collectively decide how they would characterize or describe each. They are then asked to place the samples into as many or few groups as they see fit. The groupings must be defined by shared physical properties believed to be noteworthy by the students. This activity precedes all instruction about rocks and minerals and is designed to encourage students to make detailed observations and to think about the physical characteristics of various earth materials. After receiving instruction on rocks and minerals, students are given their same collection of rocks and minerals so that they can see how their new knowledge about rocks and minerals and their classifications might affect their original groupings. This activity is appropriate and effective for both lecture and laboratory settings.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AGUFMED21A0758C
- Keywords:
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- 0810 Post-secondary education;
- EDUCATIONDE: 0820 Curriculum and laboratory design;
- EDUCATIONDE: 0825 Teaching methods;
- EDUCATIONDE: 0845 Instructional tools;
- EDUCATION