Scioly.org

Rocks and Minerals Wiki
2011 Thread
2012 Thread
2013 Thread
2012 Question Marathon
2013 Question Marathon
2014 Question Marathon
Rocks and Minerals Test Exchange 2014

Hello,

Hope It's the right 'area' to post this question, I am helping my daughter prep for Rocks & Minerals Div B. On the coaching material it says coach (i guess that's me!) should purchase inexpensive quartz crystals. May I ask if there are any suggestions on where to get them? Is there any particular types (clear, natural,etc?) Saw these sites but it has so many choices that I am not sure which to pick. If anyone can pin point a specific link or something that I can look to as a guidance it would be greatly appreciated.
http://www.healingcrystals.com/
http://www.bestcrystals.com/crystals2.html

Tks....
M

Well, I'm not a coach, but... If you choose to buy specimens of any rock/mineral, you will want the raw form, not cut or polished. For quartz specifically, I believe that the 2014 Rocks and Minerals list should list the specific types of quartz, i.e. citrine, amethyst, etc. One of each would be useful.
As for where to get them, if you choose to get them in person, I know that some galleries will carry small specimens. It's like an art gallery, but they display rocks instead.

Thanks so much. I did end up purchasing some of the quartz, etc all over the place. Tks

All,

The Rocks & Minerals Coach Handbook recommends the Audubon Field Guide. I checked it out from Library and compare the pictures of the same mineral against the ESES's complete rock set for the event and they look quite different (my concern is not on the color). I am wondering, can anyone let me know if the samples on the actual event (or invitationals) test stations look more like the rock sets or more like the field guide pictures?

The field guide pictures are 'very colorful' and most times, very polished looking.

Tks,
m.

Does anyone have any advice on how to study for this event? Should I just try to memorize all that I can about the specimens? And for the three ring binder we are allowed to bring with, can we fill it with as many note pages that we need or is there a limit? And what is the average amount of time you have had at the stations? I did this event once last year and I think we had about 5 minutes at every station, is this a common amount of time?

I'm doing road scholar and we can take a binder with as many pages as we want so I assume its the same for you guys.. As for the time, I did forestry and we had about three minutes. It depends on the amount of questions.

Any new rocks or minerals this year other than the split in Gypsum into three groups?

Je suis K wrote:Does anyone have any advice on how to study for this event? Should I just try to memorize all that I can about the specimens? And for the three ring binder we are allowed to bring with, can we fill it with as many note pages that we need or is there a limit? And what is the average amount of time you have had at the stations? I did this event once last year and I think we had about 5 minutes at every station, is this a common amount of time?

You can fill the binder with as many as you need, and the time limit is usually 2-3 minutes per station, but time really depends on the number of stations.

technomario wrote:Any new rocks or minerals this year other than the split in Gypsum into three groups?

I believe gypsum was already split into three groups last year.