This exercise should be used after you think students know what AFM diagrams are and how they work. This is sort of a quiz -- to see if they can properly interpret the diagrams. There is no point moving on to real projects that involve AFM diagrams if the students don't understand the basics.

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This short exercise refreshes students memories about converting chemical analyses to mineral formulas, and mineral formulas to oxide and element weight percents.

Students convert between formulae and weight percents, showing all work.
The problem set handout has enough introductory material for students to be able to complete the problems without any instructor lecturing or textbook reading.

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This is a very short exercise designed to get students to understand how the Gibbs energy equation is used to calculate the location of a reaction in P-T space. I use it in-class and have students work on it in groups.

Besides calculating the location of one reactions, students also have to think a bit about the significance of volume and entropy with regard to mineral stability.

This exercise is very straightforward EXCEPT that students get the units (bars, Kbar, cc, etc.) confused.

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This collection is made up of phase diagrams exercises.

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A 1-page in-class exercise on compatibility diagrams.

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A 1-page in-class exercise on compatibility diagrams.

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A 1-page in-class exercise on compatibility diagrams.

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This short exercise introduces students to phase diagrams that have a eutectic and a peritectic. After learning about such phase diagrams, students answer questions about melt composition, temperature, cooling and melting, crystalization, and melt:crystal ratios.

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Students dissolve selected salts and other compounds in water, let the water evaporate for about three weeks, and examine the crystals that grow. Students then draw crystal shapes and discuss the experiment. Discussion can include why and how crystals grow from solutions, why some minerals dissolve well and others do not, concepts of symmetry, and crystal systems and point groups.

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In this three-part exercise, students study hand samples and thin sections of light-colored igneous minerals and related mineral species.

Part one - Box of Rocks: Students examine a tray of minerals and record their physical properties, composition, and habit. They note chemical and physical similarities and differences and why there are several varieties of minerals in each group.
Part two - Definitions: Define a list of terms relevent to the lab.
Part three - Minerals in Thin Section: Observe minerals in thin section and answer questions about them.

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This is a short and simple exercise requiring students to examine and compare different crystal shapes. Cardboard models and wooden blocks are used as ideal representations of real crystals. Students examine the representations and determine what shape properties they have in common. They then discuss what it means if crystals of different minerals share some shape properties.

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This exercise is a practical application of optical mineralogy involving identification of some asbestiform minerals. First, students learn about asbestos and its various forms and are posed several related questions. Then, they look at several asbestos grain mounts under a petrographic microscope and answer more related questions.

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This activity uses figures from Francois Brisse as Esher drawings to teach students about 2-dimensional symmetry, especially involving translation.
This exercise is based on discovery learning. Students need little introduction to lattices and space groups. They can figure things out for themselves. For example, they will figure out what a glide plane is, and if you tell them ahead of time it takes away from the learning experience. The last question, which asks them to make their own symmetrical drawings, is difficult but often leads to some spectacular results.

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Many compounds crystallize rapidly from evaporating solutions, and many can be crystallized from melts. Because of this, it is possible to do simple crystallization experiments and to watch crystals grow over short times. Students can study several different compounds during one lab period. Crystal habit, growth zones, nucleation, deformation textures--students can examine many things quickly and easily.

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Students only learn to identify symmetry by practice. These activities provide that practice. Besides learning to identify symmetry, these activities will get them thinking about how symmetry operations may combine. After completing these exercises successfully, students will be ready to hear about lattices, about point symmetry and point groups, and about space symmetry and space groups.

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This short problem set works well as a group activity that can be completed in class.

The purpose of the exercise is for students to begin to think about T-X phase diagrams and how they are interpreted.

Along the way, students learn that text book authors sometimes make mistakes. The figure in the handout is from Winter's Petrology. But, Winter goofed and left some reactions off of the phase diagram.

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This exercise is designed to familiarize students with some basic crystal structures
The exercise helps students fully understand the nature and significance of ionic bonds and Pauling's second rule
It also builds a bit on Pauling's first rule (radius ratio principle)
It is one of several related activities, all of which are intended to help students understand the nature of ionic crystals

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A look at Pauling's "electrostatic valency" principle.

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This is a short project that can be used in-class or as homework. It involves just a few questions and it is intended to help students understand the idea of Gibbs free energy. It cannot completely stand alone. I use it after I have talked about Gibbs free energy for 20 minutes. It helps clarify my lecture.

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This is short problem set to be used in class. It helps focus discussion, while providing a starting point for discussing mineral reactions and phase diagrams. Students are exposed to ternary composition diagrams and to phase diagrams. They are also introduced to the phase rule, although in quite a superficial way.

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