1. What is your birthstone?
Is it classified as a gem?

2. Minerals
Definition of a Mineral: A mineral is a solid material, made of one substance, that
occurs naturally on Earth.
Most of the common minerals are made of crystals.
Definition of a crystal: It is a solid formed by a repeating, three-dimensional pattern of atoms, ions, or molecules and having fixed distances between the different parts.
Amorphous solids: Minerals that do not grow in these regular or crystalline patterns.
Some minerals can be both crystalline and amorphous.

3. Minerals
The two photos above show a crystalline quartz specimen and an amorphous quartz specimen. Quartz is a mineral made from one substance SiO2 (Silicon Oxide) that has a definite chemical composition. The quartz that you find in Asia has the same basic chemical make up as quartz found in Minnesota.

4. Minerals
There are 92 naturally occurring elements on earth but only eight elements make over 98% of the minerals on the Earth's crust. They are, in decreasing quantity, 1 oxygen, 2 silicon, 3 aluminum, 4 iron, 5 calcium, 6 sodium, 7 potassium, 8 magnesium. The graph above shows you the amounts of these elements in the Earth's crust.

5. Minerals
There are over 2000 minerals on Earth, but only 100 are commonly found. 30 minerals make up the majority of the rocks on Earth. You will be studying these minerals in this series of lessons. Rocks are made of two or more of these minerals.

6. Minerals Scientist classify minerals into many properties.
A property is a characteristic of a mineral. Properties help scientists to better understand how the mineral was formed and also to help identify a mineral.
The properties that we are going to study are:
Luster
Hardness
Cleavage & Fracture
Color
Streak
Magnetism

7. Minerals