This is a short exercise aimed at evaluating whether students understand how to interpret the Ab-An phase diagram. If students know what is going on, it takes about 10 minutes to complete. This active learning exercise makes a good break from lecture. It is best done as a group activity.

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In this short exercise, students examine the plagioclase phase diagram and answer questions about melt composition, temperature and cooling, crystalization, and melt:crystal ratios.

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This is a lengthy PDF document (60 pages+) about plane groups and symmetry. It includes colorful images of each of the 17 plane groups, in several different forms. Additionally, there are some summarizing graphics that show unit cells, lattices, symmetry elements, etc. There is lots here to choose from -- I doubt that anyone will want to use all of the images.

Studying plane groups is a good way to introduce crystal systems, point groups, lattices, symmetry operators, etc. All is in 2-D, but it is easy to tell students that the principles are the same in 3-D.

For those who like to make changes, the PDF document was created from individual EPS files. This means that the files can be opened in Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, etc., and modified to fit your own needs.

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This is a fairly short exercise that can be used for an in-class cooperative learning project or as homework. It includes LOTS of explanation and so is sort of a tutorial.
The goal is to get students to understand how compositions can be ploted on a line (2 components) or a triangle (3 components).
I use it in my petrology class because it works better than lecturing.

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This exercise involves identifying symmetry in crystals and using that information to assign crystals to crystal systems and point groups. Students examine cardboard models and wooden blocks and fill their symmetry elements into a table. Then they figure out what what crystal system and point group each sample belongs to and fill in another table.

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In this semester-long private mineral project, students become experts on one mineral. They write a paper about their mineral and use key information about it to publish a web page. Information should include provenance, physical properties, composition, recent related literature, photos of samples, optical properties, x-ray pattern, crystallography, economic value, atomic structure, other closely related minerals, associated myths, and a complete list of references based on GSA format.

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Students examine a number of key mineral properties and how they are displayed by different minerals. Mineral properties examined include crystal habit, cleavage, parting, fracture, hardness, tenacity, specific gravity, luster, color, and streak.

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This three-part exercise continues the study of minerals' physical properties and introduces petrographic microscopes. In part one, students identify minerals using a given list of minerals. In part two, students their text and newly aquired mineral identification skills to identify unknown minerals. In part three, students are introduced to the petrographic microscope and answer several related questions.

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This is a short experimental study of what happens to aluminum hydroxide, silicic acid, magnesium oxide, and calcium carbonate (or reagents of instructors choice) when they are heated to 110 and 1200 degrees.

Students determine the formula and calculate the mole percent and weight percent of each element and oxide in each reagent.
They heat the samples and calculate percentage weight loss or gain.
Finally, they write a lab report summarizing their results.

Be sure to have students save their samples for later use in a lab that introduces X-ray diffraction.

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This is a standard Schreinemakers problem: identifying the sequence of stable and metastable reactions around an invariant point. The added wrinkle is that they use the Clausius-Clapeyron Equation to calculate slopes and thus get reactions oriented correctly.

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This is a standard Schreinemakers problem: identifying the sequence of stable and metastable reactions around an invariant point. However, this problem deals with a 4-component system and phases of complex chemistry. So, Identifying and balancing the reactions is not trivial and can be a real challenge for some students.

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Students start with three reaction curves and determine which intersections are invariant points. Then they derive the other two missing reactions and draw them on the PT diagram in the correct places. Finally, they identify the parts of the curves that are stable and metastable.

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This is a standard Schreinemakers problem: identifying the sequence of stable and metastable reactions around an invariant point.

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In this three-part exercise, students study hand samples and thin sections of sedimentary minerals and rocks.

Part one - Box of Rocks: Students examine a tray of Halides, Carbonates, Borates, and Clays and record their physical properties, composition, habit, and occurence. They note chemical and physical similarities and differences of the minerals.
Part two - Definitions: Define a list of terms relevent to the lab.
Part three - Minerals in Thin Section: Observe sedimentary minerals in thin section and answer questions about them.

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This is a short exercise that tests student's knowledge of interpreting eutectic diagrams. The handout provides diagrams with questions to test students' comprehension of the diagrams.

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This is a short exercise that tests student's knowledge of interpreting peritectic diagrams. The handout provides a diagram with questions to test students' comprehension of the diagram.

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This is an introduction to basic symmetry elements. Students make drawings that show good examples of rotation axes and mirror planes and inversion centers with and without a 2-fold axis. They describe real objects a mirror plane, an inversion center, and 2, 3, 4, and 6-fold axes in 3D. They think about symmetry in atomic structures and indicate which symmetry elements are present in ball and stick models of minerals. Then they count the different kinds of symmetry elements present in wooden blocks and real minerals.

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This summary exercise involves crystal system and point group identification and stereo diagram construction. Students are presented with 5 blocks and for each block they must determine it's point group and crystal system, make stereo diagrams showing all symmetry and faces, and draw the blocks by hand or with SHAPE and label the Miller Indices.

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This complex experimental investigation uses alkali halides (NaCl, KCl, and mixtures of both) to simulate the melting of alkali feldspars which melt at too high of temperatures to work with in lab.
Three hypotheses are tested:

It is possible to crystallize alkali-chloride salts from a magma with any composition between NaCl and KCl.
Because K+ and Na+ do not have the same ionic size, the atomic spacing in alkali chlorides will vary systematically with composition.
Alkali chlorides are equally stable at high (just below liquidus) and low (subsolidus)temperatures.

This project takes more than one class period, depending on how many students are in the class, because there will be lines at the scales, oven, and XRD. It is advisable to introduce the lab in class and have students complete various parts on their own time. There are three main parts.

Part one: Synthesize all alkali halide compositions at high temperature (hopefully above the solvus.
Part two: Put grown crystals back in an oven at lower temperature to see if they will unmix.
Part three: Write a report evaluating and interpreting all results, relevant graphs, and the above three hypothesis.

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This activity is a problem set/project that involves applying the phase rule to a model chemical system, and then calculating a phase diagram for that system using TWQ. Students also interpret the resulting diagram -- discussing which minerals and assemblages are stable under which conditions and figuring out why.

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