Helen Arceneaux

The Gems and Minerals Hall has many exhibits of crystals with different fractional planes and different sizes. During our field trip we compared the composition of each of the gems and minerals with our periodic table. Many were made of the same 6-8 elements.

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Oxygen seemed to be the most abundant element found. At first I thought that oxygen may be more abundant due to the make of up of Earth's atmosphere. I then realized that oxygen occurs more frequently because of the make up of the Earth's crust. Almost 50% of the Earth's crust is made of oxygen and minerals are made from elements in the rocks. 

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I will apply this concept for my student's when teaching the periodic table. This activity allowed me to document data, process the results and apply what I already knew. This activity might also be useful when discussing the rock cycle.