The World of Minerals

      The World of Minerals is a unique resource for students and teachers.  As you lead your students through this curriculum, they will learn all the basic information that nearly all District and State curricula expect students to learn: the definition of a mineral and the meaning and application of all the typical tests used to identify mineral species (hardness, streak, color, luster, specific gravity, cleavage, fracture, acid test, magnetism, electrical conductivity).  As they practice the tests, they will gain strong skills in identifying unknown mineral species.  The World of Minerals also places heavy emphasis on the uses of minerals in our lives.  Even simple objects, like a light bulb, are possible only because their parts are composed of compounds that are retrieved from minerals.

But unlike most mineral curricula, The World of Minerals allows you, and your students, to explore mineralogy more deeply through a number of cross-curricular projects and activities.  It is a journey that will lead them to the field of crystallography as they grow crystals and analyze their forms.  They will be able to use minerals to do some simple and interesting chemistry experiments.  The study of mineral names will open doors to geography, history, many languages, and biographies of significant scientists, statesmen, politicians, bankers and business giants ... and more. 

This Teacher’s Guide provides reproducible pages, learning activity suggestions, individual and group projects and more that your students can use to learn about minerals and mineralogy and to leap into many other exciting areas of study that will enrich their knowledge of languages, history, science and more.  All the pages in this guide can be reproduced as you need for use in the classroom.  In addition, you can visit our website to find even more reproducible pages for your students’ use.  This web resource is available ONLY to our customers.

Thank you for using this resource.  You will quickly find that it is the strongest, most comprehensive    resource available for your class instruction on minerals and mineralogy.

      In order to further enhance the value of The World of Minerals, we have made available a number of educational items that you can download from our website and copy for use in your classroom.  The URL for this material will be emailed to you when you have purchased The World of Minerals class pack.  This material is designed to be an additional enhancement to your students’ mineral education.  We will be adding to the collection of material on a regular basis, so please come back often. 

 

Presently you will find the following free additional items on the website:

Mineral Names in Chinese (10 pages)

Mineral Names in Chinese (Teacher’s Guide)

Mineral Crossword Puzzles & Mineral Word Search Puzzles

(On the website as “Classroom Supplements”)

Cut-and-Fold Crystal Models

Additional Reproducible Pages

$39.95 for a Class Pack

which includes 25 copies of The World of Minerals, the 28-page Teacher’s Guide and access to all extra materials posted on our website.

(Additional Copies are available for $1.50 each).

Scroll down for sample pages.