EQ:

Examples of Minerals

What are minerals?

What are the 5 properties
used to identify minerals?

CALCITE
Minerals are
Solid
Non-living
Natural
Basic

PYRITE

MUSCOVITE

Rock vs. Mineral

Did you think they were the same thing??

QUARTZ

Mineral: a nonliving
Earth material that cannot
be broken down any
further

Rock: fragments of stony

material consisting of
mineral matter

MINERALS

KYANITE
SULFUR

TESTING THE PROPERTIES OF MINERALS

MISS JESSICA CHAN

How to identify minerals:

1. Color

Vocabulary
Ever found
some minerals?

white, brown, pink?

is the way light bounces

off a mineral.

2. Luster
shiny or dull?

is the mark left when a

mineral is rubbed on a tile.

3. Streak
black scratch?

4. Texture
rough, smooth, powdery?

5. Hardness

is the shade you see when

you first looks at a mineral.

We identify minerals by
their properties:
color
luster
streak
texture
hardness

hard or soft?
Sing these handy dandy lyrics
to remember the properties!

Mineral Anthem
Minerals arent hard to identify.
You just have to know the steps and try.
Luster, streak, and hardness, right?
Then theres color and text oh my!

is the feel of a minerals

surface.
is the ease in which a
mineral can be scratched.