6B23 Making Minerals

Background Natural resources like rocks and minerals have been formed on earth over a long time. People consider them to be non-renewable. But what happens when people have the technology to create diamonds? How does this affect the value of ALL of the diamonds in the world?

Vocabulary Mined: – Get resources from underground Manufactured: – Man-made from raw materials Renewable: – Replaced by nature Non-renewable: – Not replaced by natural processes

Challenge Question How do diamonds made in a lab compare to diamonds mined from the earth? Answer: They are very similar and hard to tell them apart.

Procedure: Read and Write Work with your table group to read about mined and manufactured diamonds p B50-52 Take notes in your lab book as you read. Decide together which notes are important. Compare information in Table 1 on p B52. What is the same? What is different? Which diamond type is more valuable to you? Which factors affect diamond value the most?

6B23 Mineral Analysis On separate paper copy & explain in 1 paragraph 1.Look at the table on p B52. Would a geologist consider a manufactured diamond to be real? 2.Would a geologist consider a manufactured diamond to be a mineral? 3.Are rocks and minerals renewable resources? 4.Would you rather buy a manufactured or a mined diamond? Use evidence from the book