Preliminary: Rocks and Minerals

[mingtian]

I can't wait to do it for the first time!!! I won't be as much of a slacker as I was for fossils, and are there any particularly good resources to use for this event? I'm a newcomer, so I wouldn't know.

Yeah, same here. I don't consider myself an earth science person, but I'm open to trying new events. I've checked through the thread and have written down which guides have been mentioned. So far, I have:
-Smithsonian
-DK
-Simon and Schuster
-Audubon
-Peterson
I'm probably going to look at all of them, and then pick the one I feel most comforable with. The right guide for a team sometimes depends on how they've prepared, what they're comfortable with, what they're not comforable with, etc. If I'm missing any, please let me know. If anyone can add, that would be awesome!

A binder is far superior to any guide book because you can organize the info however you want, putting everything you need to know in an easy to read manner. Field guides also have a lot of information that's superfluous to this event, such as optical properties (way too advanced for Scio), making it harder to find the information you need and cluttering up the page.

And you can also photocopy pages of your field guide and put them in your binder.

[QuantumLeaper]

Good idea. Does anyone have an idea what some of the hardest questions they might throw at us are?

[rfscoach]

And you can also photocopy pages of your field guide and put them in your binder.

If you buy the field guide used and get it cheap enough, you can just cut out the pages and add them to you binder. In a lot of cases that is cheaper than the colored ink....

[Cheesy Pie]

What if you need both sides of a page? Then you can't glue it into a binder.

[Kokonilly]

Buy two guides or just photocopy one side, I would think.

[anatomy]

wait are there any other resources that can be used except for just books and field guides?

[rfscoach]

What if you need both sides of a page? Then you can't glue it into a binder.

Attach to the inside of sheet protectors....

[Infinity Flat]

wait are there any other resources that can be used except for just books and field guides?

Other than your fingernails and anything provided at the stations, I don't think so.

But what else could you possibly need?

[quizbowl]

wait are there any other resources that can be used except for just books and field guides?

Other than your fingernails and anything provided at the stations, I don't think so.

But what else could you possibly need?

I guess you could bring a magnifying glass or a loupe, but I don't see a huge need for it.

[Infinity Flat]

wait are there any other resources that can be used except for just books and field guides?

Other than your fingernails and anything provided at the stations, I don't think so.

But what else could you possibly need?

I guess you could bring a magnifying glass or a loupe, but I don't see a huge need for it.

Or your own streak plates, I suppose.