Rock Museum Day!

We concluded our Rocks and Minerals unit with Museum Day! We invited the students to bring in their personal collections of rocks and minerals. It was great! We had a special guest in attendance! The  President of the West Suburban Lapidary Club! Ms. Karen Dave brought in some amazing specimens of her own to look at!

We touched a petrified dinosaur bone, petrified wood, a large piece of Tiger Eye, and a hunk of copper! 

Petrified dinosaur bone! See the marrow in the middle?

Ms. Dave was an amazing resource to have for our Museum Day! She was able to identify some of our unknown rocks and minerals!










We had so much fun looking at many different types of rocks and minerals. Thanks to everyone who participated and a big thanks to Ms. Karen Dave!

Rocks and minerals

Greetings!
When most of you think about rocks and minerals you might not consider your own backyard as a great place to start looking. But it is! Illinois has some fascinating rocks and minerals! We have some great minerals like mica, quartz and fluorite! Here is a list of the common ones found in this state.

Did you know that some minerals change color or even "glow" under ultraviolet light? This is due to specific "activators" within the makeup of the mineral. When the wavelengths strike the minerals, the light is then reflected back in a longer wavelength by excited electrons. Only about 15% of minerals have the ability to glow, or fluoresce. Here are some great pictures and more background on the way it works.

http://geology.com/articles/fluorescent-minerals/