Minerals 3-D Model Making Kit
A hands-on lesson on how to classify minerals and how minerals combine to form rocks!
Models are powerful tools for teaching science because they provide useful simplifications of structures and processes, helping to make the unseen seen and the complex simple.
Rocks are made of minerals in different combinations and proportions. Minerals are classified into groups such as silicates and non-silicates. Show examples of these minerals to your students with our interactive model.
First students make their model minerals using the colorful parts with real mineral images. Then they use them to look at 32 different types of minerals and how they are classified. The model can be used for introductory or more advanced classes.
The model covers light silicates (feldspars, quartz, muscovite & clay minerals), dark silicates (pyroxenes, amphiboles, olivine, biotite & garnet), non-silicates (carbonates, halides, oxides, sulphides, sulphates & phosphates), native elements (gold, graphite, diamond, copper & sulphur) and Mohs scale of hardness.
The Model Making Kit includes enough materials for students to assemble up to 5 paper models working cooperatively. The comprehensive Teacher Resource Guide included provides illustrated readings, activities, key vocabulary and an assessment, along with teaching opportunities for students to Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend and Evaluate their understanding of the concepts presented.
Models are powerful tools for teaching science because they provide useful simplifications of structures and processes, helping to make the unseen seen and the complex simple.
Based upon the NGSS Standards, students are expected to develop and use models to represent structures, systems and processes, and then provide explanations, make predictions, or investigate possible solutions.
Using the ready-to-use materials provided with each 3-D model set, students first assemble a model to represent a structure or an entire system as an aid to develop questions and explanations. They will then generate data and observations that can be used to make predictions and communicate ideas to others.
