Explore interesting properties and applications of minerals!

Experience firsthand some of the unique physical and optical qualities of minerals! Your students will investigate fluorescence, natural magnetism, piezoelectricity, double refraction and thermal conductivity. Among the minerals included for their studies are ulexite, the mineral used in fiber optics; magnetite, the source of natural magnetism; quartz, its application in "piezoelectricity" and the role it plays in a variety of electronic equipment; calcite and polarized light; and the function of minerals in thermal conductivity.