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

Book

tuftedtitmouse12 wrote: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).

gneissisnice wrote:

tuftedtitmouse12 wrote: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.

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...

tuftedtitmouse12 wrote: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.

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

gneissisnice wrote:

tuftedtitmouse12 wrote: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.

tuftedtitmouse12 wrote:so the binder would be my source of info while the field guide would be used for what?

Nothing.

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

tuftedtitmouse12 wrote: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.