Virginia Department of Education
Mineral Identification
What's the difference between a rock and a mineral? And what properties are used to identify minerals? The first installment of a five-part series on earth materials and processes prompts young scientists to identify a set of...
Curated OER
Minerals
A must-have for your geology library of resources, this PowerPoint walks viewers through the characteristics of minerals and each test used to help identify them. As you present this collection of slides, stop to demonstrate each quality...
Curated OER
Minerals of the Earth
Unearth this gem of a resource to use in your geology unit! With colorful images, bullet-point text, and links to related videos, it deals with the characteristics, properties, and identification of minerals. There are also slides...
CK-12 Foundation
Mineral Identification: Mineral Scratch Test
How can mineralogists tell a diamond in the rough from a chunk of table salt? Science scholars find out through an interactive that demonstrates the characteristics of minerals used for identification purposes. Topics include hardness,...
Curated OER
Student Exploration: Mineral Identification
In this mineral identification worksheet, students read nine vocabulary words and answer 5 short answer and fill-in-the-blank questions regarding minerals. There are four additional pages of related activities.
Science Friday
Mineral Madness
Science does not need to be as hard as a rock. Pupils test 10 different minerals to determine their properties. The learners observe luster, streak, hardness, and fluorescence for each specimen. Afterwards, they compare and contrast the...
Brooklyn Children’s Museum
Rocks and Minerals in Our Lives
Young geologists discover the important role that rocks and minerals play in our everyday lives through this series of hands-on activities. Starting off with a lesson that defines the difference between plants, animals, and minerals,...
K-State Research and Extensions
Crystal Shapes
Of quartz I love geology! The chapter offers five activities at three different levels. It features hands-on activities that cover crystal shapes, cleavage and fracture, hardness scale, specific gravity, and mineral identification....
Curated OER
Mineral Identification Lab
In this mineral worksheet, students conduct mineral tests on unknown minerals and use the identification chart to determine which mineral they have tested. They test 5 unknown minerals and write the results of their tests in a chart.
Curated OER
Mighty Minerals
Young scholars identify the characteristics of minerals. They complete proper identification tests and record the data in an organized fashion. They list important uses for minerals as well.
Cornell University
Exploring Rocks and Minerals
Investigate the properties of rocks and minerals through a rockin' hands-on activity. Learners test rocks for various properties and, using a guide, attempt to identify different samples. They use various properties including hardness,...
Core Knowledge Foundation
Rocks & Minerals
Take young geologists on an exploration of the rock cycle with this six-lesson earth science unit on rocks and minerals. Through a series of discussions, demonstrations, and hands-on investigations your class will learn about the...
Curated OER
Rocks and Minerals
Take young geologists on an exploration of the collection of rocks and minerals that we call Earth with an upper-elementary science lesson. Through a series of class discussion and hands-on investigations, students learn about the three...
Curated OER
Mineral Identification
In this mineral identification worksheet, students match 10 terms to their definitions. Terms include types of minerals, tests and characteristics of minerals. They write down the tests used to identify an unknown mineral and they fill...
Curated OER
Mineral Identification
In this mineral identification lesson plan, students analyze 14 minerals and test their physical properties. They test the color, luster, streak, hardness and breakage of each mineral. Students answer 5 questions about the physical...
Curated OER
Virginia Rocks and Minerals
Learners explore, via a CD-ROM, the Virginia's five geological regions and discover the rocks and minerals located in each. In stone kits, they examine samples of rocks and minerals and answer questions about them. After discovering the...
Curated OER
Fairly Simple Mineral Identification Exercise
Young scholars perform simple field tests on a variety of minerals and use their results and a given data chart to determine which mineral each specimen is.
Curated OER
Mineral Identification
High schoolers identify minerals from its physical properties accomplished through observation and testing of the minerals involved. They divide into groups and perform the physical property tests listed on the Mineral Background sheet.
Curated OER
Introduction to Minerals
Students discuss rocks and other earth materials made up of minerals. They identify minerals by means of their more obvious physical properties such as hardness, luster, color, streak, cleavage and fracture. They arrange a given set of...
Curated OER
Mineral Identification
Eighth graders examine the properties that are used to identify minerals and how they work. In this investigative lesson plan students use the six properties to identify minerals that they are given.
Curated OER
Mystery Minerals
In this science worksheet, students complete a chart of mineral properties. Minerals are listed by number, and students perform various tests to determine luster, hardness, color, streak color, fracture type and cleavage type. They use a...
Curated OER
Mineral Identification
Students investigate the environment by examining mineral characteristics. In this mineral instructional activity, students perform scientific observations in groups in which they identify minerals found in everyday objects by using a...
Curated OER
Keying Rocks
Young geologists learn how to use an identification key in order to classify rocks. The key is designed to help them classify rocks into three types: ignesous, metamorphic, and sediimentary. After an initial teacher-led demonstration,...
Curated OER
Mined or Grown?
Sixth graders differentiate between raw materials that are cultivated and those that are mined. They collaborate with their eighth grade peers to learn more about the mining complexities at the end of their mineral identification unit.