MAGFORMER® MINERAL MATH

Elementary school students study symmetry and geometric shapes in their mathematics lessons. Although these lessons may utilize common illustrative examples from nature, those examples rarely include mineral crystals, despite the fact that many children are interested in minerals and mineral collecting. When later introduced to crystal systems and crystal symmetry in high school and college level geology classes, students frequently struggle with the mathematical aspects.

In an effort to familiarize students with the math-mineral connection early in their education, to promote the fascinating world of crystal symmetry to young students, and to build a foundation for older students’ later encounters with crystallography, a hands-on lesson series was created for Grades 3-5 mathematics. Guided by classroom hand-sample crystal specimens and photographs of museum-quality and gem-quality crystals, students use Magformers^®, colorful plastic-coated neodymium magnets in a variety of polygon shapes, to construct simple 3-D mineral crystal forms (e.g., halite, zircon, tourmaline, beryl, etc.) from several of the crystal systems. They then examine their constructions to answer questions about symmetry, polygons, simple polyhedra, edges, and vertices.

A table-top demonstration of the lessons logged the most visits at a professional education conference, and the lesson material has been adopted by a number of teachers and requested for teacher professional development workshops. In addition, lesson material was modified for incorporation into the mineralogy-crystallography section of a university physical geology course, and student comments suggest that the activities help to make crystal systems and symmetry more interesting and easier to grasp. Lesson materials also can be adapted readily for secondary school earth science classes.