What is flaky, hard, and smells like rotten eggs?

Stale cheese bread? No....













An old episode of American Idol? Maybe..........





Minerals?!! Yes, that's what!

This week our students observed and recorded 3 different physical properties of all 12 mineral samples; appearance, texture, and smell. Completing this task along with an introduction and conclusion within 45 minutes was not easy, so time management was a big concern during this lesson. Fortunately we kept our intro and conclusion short and used the classroom chimes to usher students along from mineral to mineral every few minutes and they were able to complete their recordings on time. In fact, the lesson went so smoothly and well that we felt it was our BEST LESSON EVER!! yay!!
This week we were also being observed by our professors on the following items; content vocabulary, flow, and misconceptions identified. For vocabulary we introduced the words texture, which students understood as what something feels like; and metallic (in terms of smell) and Tracey gave the great example of how pennies or coins smell. Another word that became a vocab word was one I had given as an example of a possible texture; flaky. I hadn't anticipated that students might not know this word, so after more then one group of students asked me what it meant, I made sure to go over it with every group ( I suggested to think of flaky piece of bread because I thought phyllo dough or croissant might be a whole other set of vocab words) and I pointed out Muscovite (mica) as an example.

Because there were so many materials to be passed out to each group and we wanted to give students as much time as possible to record their observations, I passed out all the materials while Tracey gave the introduction. If they hadn't had indoor recess beforehand, I could have done it then, but this strategy worked just as well because when students returned to their seats, there materials were all there for them ready to go (and no time was lost on material distribution). We also used the chimes again to signal to students when they should be finishing their recordings on one mineral and moving on to the next. We felt this really helped with time management, especially because there was very little time to complete all 12 observations.

At the end of the lesson we introduced the word misconception, which became another vocab word, but the students quickly understood it to mean something that they think to be true but really isn't. When we asked the students if they had any misconceptions about minerals before the lesson they were able to give many great examples, so we knew they understood not only the word misconception, but had also learned a lot from the lesson itself!

I was also impressed with how well students worked in pairs and took their tasks very seriously! Students discussed their results together and and compared with other partners as well. They also wafted instead of sniffed and always kept their minerals in their gloved hand--- little geologists in the making!! I think it was a lot of fun for the students, and it was a lot of fun for us because we're feeling more comfortable and confident in the classroom.