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Your first name: last innitial Identification Mineral

Report

The Bane of All Minerals

Do you think the steps below of the scientific method must be followed in order? ____, because _________________________________________________________________________. 1. State the problem (the objective in the form of a question). 2. Gather information. 3. Form a hypothesis. 4. Experiment! 5. Record and analyze data. 6. Form a conclusion. 7. Communicate results.

Now that you are done researching and identifying your mineral fill-in the information for each step of the scientific method below. Then, number which step was first, second, etc. Objective: Use the steps of the scientific method to identify a mystery mineral. Materials: -Mineral -Streak Plate -Color -Luster 1. Mr. Finan gave me a mineral. 2. Look at the mineral. 3. Find its properties 4. Search for minerals -Hardness -Cleavage/Fracture -Special Properties 5. Find two similar matching minerals 6. Decide on one 7. 8.

Procedure:

1. State the problem. (Hint: Just write the objective above in the form of a question.) How can I use the scientific method to identify the mystery mineral? 2. Gather information. (Look it up and/or ask an expert) *see the attached Mineral Identification Data Sheet 3. Form a hypothesis. Write a statement that tells what mineral you think yours is (your two guesses). I think my mineral is either Lazurite or Sodalite.

4. Start the experiment! (Follow the procedure.) 5. Record and analyze data. *see the attached Mineral Identification Data Sheet 6. Form a conclusion. This must be a paragraph that includes:
An answer to the problem (question 1). How your hypothesis compares with the actual results. (Was your hypothesis correct? If not, how close were you?) A description of your mineral and what helped you find the identification of your mineral the most.

Type your paragraph here


In science class, I used the scientific method to identify my "mystery" mineral. My hypothesis was that my mineral was Sodalite. I was correct. My mineral's color was blue with white and black lines and the streak powder was white. It reacts to fluorescent light, and it has both cleavage and fracture. One thing that helped me identify my mineral was the chart which we were given at the beginning of the lab. That chart gave me a list of minerals to look for that could be the same as my own mineral. Google Images also helped me. After I found the options from the list, I used Google Images to find pictures of every option. Immediately, I discovered that Sodalite looked exactly like my own mineral. Finally, to further identify my mystery mineral, I used the websites minerals.net, mindat.org, and galleries .com as sources.

7. Communicate your results. Post this report and your Data Sheet where people can see it!
WCS 6th Grade Science

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