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...
Curated OER
Mineral Matters
Students work in a team to use the ProScope Digital USB Microscope and a computer to collect microscopic images from a variety of mineral specimens. They compare specimens and determine how they are alike and different by comparing their...
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...
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...
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,...
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,...
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...
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,...
Curated OER
Minerals, Rocks, and Fossils
Kick off your science lesson with this PowerPoint about minerals, rocks, and fossils. This presentation clearly defines key vocabulary, including: luster, sediments, erosion, and more! This is an eye-catching slideshow that students...
Curated OER
Rocks and Minerals
Review the difference between rocks and minerals using this resource. Learners identify and investigate the physical properties of these objects. They create a Venn diagram to compare and contrast types of rocks. This is a motivating way...
Curated OER
Renewable vs. Non-Renewable Resources
Fifth graders are introduced to the important topic of renewable, and non-renewable, resources. They are expected to be able to correctly categorize different types of resources as renewable or non-renewable. Another emphasis of this...
Middle School Science Blog
Minerals in Your Home
In this minerals worksheet, students use a website to find the minerals used to make specific items found in homes. They pick one item in a bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchen and complete a chart with the minerals found in each...
Curated OER
Rocks and Minerals
In this earth science worksheet, students use the clues given at the bottom of the sheet to solve the crossword puzzle on mineral and rocks. They identify the various types of rocks formed and specific examples of these rocks.
Curated OER
Minerals and the Products of Mining
Students plot where minerals come from and have an awareness of how mineral use makes the world interdependent. They examine how to identify some sort of mineral products they use each day.
Curated OER
Mighty Minerals Report Requirements
In this minerals instructional activity, students create a cartoon of a mineral and include its chemical formula and its important uses. They create a slogan and a cartoon character to represent their mineral. They fill out important...
Curated OER
Different Minerals
In this minerals worksheet, students read about the relationship between elements, rocks and minerals. They experiment using 6 different colored gumdrops to represent 6 common elements. Students construct gumdrop and toothpick models of...
Curated OER
Mineral Mania
In this mineral worksheet, students use an on line source to answer questions about minerals, about resources and their uses, about fireworks and about birthstones.
Curated OER
Natural Resources: Can We Use Them Forever? Grade 2
Bright colors and animation are great ways to attract a young students attention. Students are introduced to the concepts of renewable and non-renewable resources as they pose the question, will our resources be around forever? This...
Columbus City Schools
What is in that?
Invite your class to dig in to an engaging journey into the world of mining! Here you'll find the tools to equip young miners with knowledge of soil, rocks, and minerals, as well as types of mining operations. To round things out, the...
Curated OER
Renewable vs. Non-Renewable Resources
Here's a fine lesson on renewable and non-renewable sources of energy for your 5th graders. In it, learners list a number of natural resources on the board, then try to sort the resources into appropriate categories. This helps them to...
Columbus City Schools
Rocking the Cycle!
Time to rock out! Discover the "life" cycle of the average rock using an illustrative stations lab and stimulating pairs game. Roll the dice to determine your fate: will it be melting in magma or chilling out to form igneous rock? The...
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,...
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...