GEO 306 Lab 2
Simple Structures: Native Elements, Hydroxides and Halides
To download an electronic copy of this lab (Adobe PDF File), Click Here. This lab is designed to give the students a crash course in minerals with relatively simple structures; in this case Native Elements, Hydroxides, and Sulfides. This lab consists of two major sections: Mineral Identification and Structure & Chemistry.
In the first section, the class is given a group of 15 minerals to identify based on their physical properties, and a table of physical properties for each hand sample that they are to fill out with all the pertinent information. This group of minerals was especially difficult to work with because several of the samples look exactly alike. The lesson here is that you can't always identify a mineral on looks alone, but you must often rely on its other physical properties for an accurate identification. This section took much longer to complete than I had initially anticipated. In retrospect, it would have been a good idea to have the students read up on these minerals before the lab. But, all in all, the lab went well, and the students were exposed to several new concepts.
In the second portion of the lab, the students were given several structural models and had to answer a series of questions based on not only these models, but also the chemistry and physical properties of the minerals they represent. There were some difficult questions in this exercise, as well as some not so difficult ones. Once again, this lab was designed to utilize the students' background knowledge, but also require the students to use the textbook and the TA's as a resource in order to successfully complete this lab exercise. Each lab in this course will be designed to build upon the one previous to it, and this exercise did just that. Using what the students have learned about simple mineral structures and properties from this lab, they will be able to move forward and apply this knowledge to more complex minerals and structures in future laboratory exercises.
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