Preliminary: Rocks and Minerals

[mingtian]

For fossils we did the Smithsonian guide. Do they have a R&M book, and if so is it good?

Book

[gneissisnice]

hm, then in the binder, couldn't you dedicate a page or so to each mineral and categorize it and arrange it so it would be easy to navigate? and then get a good ID book as your field guide?

That's exactly what I do (minus the field guide). Each mineral gets a page (though you could honestly fit two per page, that's what I did for Fossils to save paper) with info on Formula, Crystal Structure, Crystal Habit, Hardness, Color, Streak, Cleavage/Fracture, Uses, and Extra. No paragraphs of info, just a set of bullet points that are very easy to read.

With that set up, a field guide is superfluous. I brought one anyway, but the only use it got was at one competition where someone completely forgot all their resources so I lent them my book (not my binder).

[anatomy]

hm, then in the binder, couldn't you dedicate a page or so to each mineral and categorize it and arrange it so it would be easy to navigate? and then get a good ID book as your field guide?

That's exactly what I do (minus the field guide). Each mineral gets a page (though you could honestly fit two per page, that's what I did for Fossils to save paper) with info on Formula, Crystal Structure, Crystal Habit, Hardness, Color, Streak, Cleavage/Fracture, Uses, and Extra. No paragraphs of info, just a set of bullet points that are very easy to read.

With that set up, a field guide is superfluous. I brought one anyway, but the only use it got was at one competition where someone completely forgot all their resources so I lent them my book (not my binder).

Yes, that's what I did for fossils as well, it really helped, and we didn't need a field guide.
I am probably going to use the Smithsonian guide and take that to the competition like I did with fossils.
All the information will be in the binder, so the field guide isn't that necessary.

[tuftedtitmouse12]

hm thanks
but i was thinking about getting a field guide that might help with IDing the rock or mineral?
...my ornithology instincts tell me that i might need a field guide for IDing as a back up...in case i blank out during competition...

[Luo]

hm thanks
but i was thinking about getting a field guide that might help with IDing the rock or mineral?
...my ornithology instincts tell me that i might need a field guide for IDing as a back up...in case i blank out during competition...

You should definitely get a field guide as backup and to help you prepare your binder, but don't rely on the field guide too much during the actual competition.

[tuftedtitmouse12]

so the binder would be my source of info while the field guide would be used for what?

[mingtian]

hm, then in the binder, couldn't you dedicate a page or so to each mineral and categorize it and arrange it so it would be easy to navigate? and then get a good ID book as your field guide?

That's exactly what I do (minus the field guide). Each mineral gets a page (though you could honestly fit two per page, that's what I did for Fossils to save paper) with info on Formula, Crystal Structure, Crystal Habit, Hardness, Color, Streak, Cleavage/Fracture, Uses, and Extra. No paragraphs of info, just a set of bullet points that are very easy to read.

With that set up, a field guide is superfluous. I brought one anyway, but the only use it got was at one competition where someone completely forgot all their resources so I lent them my book (not my binder).

That's exactly how I thought about it at Fossils. The field guide just took up space.

[mingtian]

so the binder would be my source of info while the field guide would be used for what?

Nothing.

[tuftedtitmouse12]

then why would the people allow us to have field guides?
i mean, a binder is already enough.....

[Luo]

then why would the people allow us to have field guides?
i mean, a binder is already enough.....

It never hurts to have extra information on hand. Just use it as a backup! Don't feel forced to even crack it open during the event if you don't need to.