Facts About Minerals
3rd - 6th Grade Textbook
L1 Minerals
L1 MineralsFacts about minerals are included in every one of our Level 1 Minerals textbook lessons. There are 12 lessons in the book. These are some of the lesson titles included in the textbook: What is a Mineral, Keys to Elimination, Luster of Minerals, Mohs Scale of Hardness, Cleavage Surfaces and Special Properties of Minerals. Each lesson contains 2-3 pages of written material, a quiz and a kids science activity.
The textbooks are designed for upper elementary school students. Each textbook can be completed in one month by students who finish three lessons per week. A semester of Earth Science credit can be earned by students completing one of the Level 1 courses. Students wishing to earn a year of Earth Science credit should complete both Level 1 courses.
L1 Minerals Kit
Video Lessons
Myrna Martin introduces each lesson in the textbook on a video that can be purchased with our complete kits, packages and courses. Myrna covers not only the main points in the lesson she also includes extra information on the topic that is not contained in the written material.
Elementary Science Activities
The kids science activities are fun and easy to do. They also increase a student's understanding of the information taught in the lesson. Examples of the activities include: Getting to Know Minerals, Animal Mineral or Vegetable, Checking for Hardness and Finding Fractures. Each of these activities are designed to teach the identification keys needed to identify most of the minerals that have been identified on our planet.
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Student Edition eBook link Teacher Edition eBook link |
Teacher’s Edition Textbooks
The teacher’s textbook is an exact copy of the student textbook. It includes the answers to the quizzes on each quiz page. A Teacher’s Notes page is located before each lesson with the following information
1. Lesson Content
2. Lesson Objectives
3. Activity information and materials needed
4. Vocabulary and definitions
5. Correlation with the National Science Standards
Facts about minerals
Two important facts about minerals. Magnetite has been used by sailors for thousands of years when they are at sea. Sailors traveling on cloudy days could tell the which direction they were traveling by floating magnetite on a piece of cork in water. The mineral acts like a small compass. When the magnetite was molten and started to cool the individual minerals in the rock aligned up with magnetic north.
Water that we drink everyday is a liquid. When water in the atmosphere begins to freeze it forms a mineral because a snowflake has a definite chemical composition and a specific crystalline structure. There is a saying no two snowflakes are alike even though they are six-sided crystals.
What is a Mineral?
Geologists use these facts about minerals to define them. A mineral is a naturally occurring, inorganic solid that has a definite chemical composition and crystalline structure.
- Gold, silver, and diamonds, are all naturally occurring minerals.
- Coal and coral reefs are organic rocks produced by living organisms.
- A mineral has a definite crystalline structure that forms when atoms combine to create a molecule that is repeated over and over.
- Snowflakes are minerals but water is not because it is a liquid.
- Some minerals are a single element like copper while others like quartz (silicon dioxide) are made up of two or elements.
Identifying minerals
There are approximately four thousand named minerals that are recognized by the International Mineralogical Association. Geologists are able to recognize different minerals based on their properties. Hardness, luster, color, streak, fracture and special properties of some minerals are keys to the identification of minerals.
Rock Forming Minerals
Only twenty minerals are found in great abundance on Earth.
Facts about minerals in basalt. Basalt found on all ocean floors usually contains olivine, augite, and plagioclase feldspars.
Facts about minerals in andesite. Andesite occurs in subduction zones, where stratovolcanoes like Mt. Hood grow into towering volcanoes. Minerals in andesite includes plagioclase, pyroxene and/or hornblende.
Facts about minerals in rhyolite. Rhyolite contains 70% or higher of silicon dioxide. Rhyolite lava that cools underground is granite. Minerals in granite include quartz, sanidine, plagioclase, hornblende and biotite mica.
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