STEM East

Dr. Terri L. Woods, professor emeritus at East Carolina University, will travel to schools in Dare, Currituck, Tyrell, and Hyde Counties to present industry-based classroom lessons to a group of approximately 25 middle schools students.

What a geologist calls a mineral and what a nutritionist calls a mineral are two very different things. Geologists use numerous diagnostic properties to describe, classify, and identify minerals. Students will be introduced to these techniques with powerpoint illustrations and instructor demonstrations before engaging in hands-on investigations with kits of about a dozen specimens. They will learn how to describe and identify minerals using the following properties: hardness, luster, cleavage, streak, density, magnetism, reaction to acid, etc. They will use testing tools such as glass plates, streak plates, dilute acid, and magnets. Following an assessment of their samples’ properties they will use a determinative table (a form of dichotomous key) to identify them. Minerals are the building blocks of rocks, so understanding minerals is also necessary to understand the rocks they form. We’ll end with a brief look at careers in the earth-science and environmental fields.

If you would like to see a more detailed description of the exercise please send me an email at woodst@ecu.edu.