Welcome! You’re going to really enjoy lugging your overfilled 2-inch binder everywhere!

<aside> <img src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/6f45c3d8-c18c-4e97-aef1-8308d48e5cbe/svlogo.jpeg" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/6f45c3d8-c18c-4e97-aef1-8308d48e5cbe/svlogo.jpeg" width="40px" /> Want to learn live? Enroll in ScioCamp.

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<aside> 🔎 Course content was made from Rocks & Minerals lead faculty, including:

<aside> 👩🏻‍⚕️ Rebecca Liebson, undergraduate at Stanford University, national Rocks & Minerals gold medalist from Solon HS Science Olympiad, and rocks test writer at Golden Gate Science Olympiad. Rebecca created ScioVirtual’s Rocks course and supervised the curricula of all ScioVirtual earth science courses.

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<aside> 👩🏻‍🔬 Victoria Li, a NJ Science Olympiad state gold medalist in Rocks & Minerals. Victoria has taught Crime Busters and Disease Detectives at ScioVirtual.

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Jean teaching rock identification through sharing her personal rock collection in ScioVirtual live Earth Science Fundamentals course.

Jean teaching rock identification through sharing her personal rock collection in ScioVirtual live Earth Science Fundamentals course.

Overview

This event relies heavily on how much work a competitor puts into their binder. No matter how godly you may be at ID, it would be almost impossible, as well as an unnecessary amount of work to memorize the facts for each individual specimen. The specific gravity of Hematite? I have absolutely no idea, but I know exactly where in my binder it’s located.

In addition to ID, competitors should know the vocabulary of both general and more specifically targeted geological terms well. You could write them down in your binder as well, but it’s just faster to know them on the go.

Terminology

There are certain characteristics that are used to identify rocks and minerals —> make sure you know and can use them.

Rocks and Minerals Day 1.pptx

Terminology

Mineral ID

Beyond learning the words, being able to identify the rocks and minerals from their pictures is crucial. There’s not much of a shortcut to this (unless you have a photographic memory) besides practice.

1/17 Chemical Groups & ID 1

1/24 Mineral Uses & ID 2

1/31 Mineral Formation & ID 3

2/14 Mineral ID 5, Rocks Intro

2/7 Mineral ID 4

A presentation specifically on silicates as these make up the largest group of minerals tested

Rocks and Minerals Day 5.pptx

And here’s some practice with answers!

ID 3 Challenge

1/10 Intro R&M Properties Answers

ID 3 Answers

1/10 Intro R&M Properties

Rocks

Most people prefer mineral ID cause ooohhh shiny! But knowing your rocks is just as important; they’re also harder to ID.

2/28 Metamorphic Rocks

Sedimentary Rocks

Igneous Rocks

Metamorphic Rocks HW

And finally, an extended ID practice with an answer key