REIMAGINING MINERALOGY EDUCATION: BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS BETWEEN MUSEUMS AND SMALL LIBERAL ARTS INSTITUTIONS

State and local museums are vast repositories of cataloged specimens that can expose college students to a greater variety of mineral specimens that cannot be found within a typical university collection. Thus, partnerships between universities and museums hold great potential to increase learning gains and student agency, provide students with service learning experiences, and help foster a sense of belonging and inclusivity within college classrooms.

The Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites recently acquired a mineral collection that was originally assembled by Gerard Troost (1776-1850). Troost was a student of René Just Haüy (Father of Crystallography) and his original collection included over 13,000 mineral specimens that represented more than 59 countries. Today, the Troost Mineral Collection contains over 6,000 minerals. Due to storage issues and deteriorating specimen labels, many of the specimens are separated from their original Troost catalogue numbers, and therefore their mineralogy and source location. Significant efforts are underway by Curator of Geology, Peggy Fisherkeller, to document this exceptional collection. All specimens are catalogued, but the work to identify and link each specimen to Troost’s original catalogue number continues. With many unknown minerals still present, this provides an unprecedented opportunity for undergraduate mineralogy students to apply their knowledge and skills to assist in these efforts. Because the integrity and preservation of each specimen is paramount, only non-destructive techniques are permitted. Thus, careful examination of the minerals using traditional methods (e.g., color, streak, hardness, habit, cleavage, etc.) will be emphasized. Beyond collecting fundamentals observations, students will have opportunities to use analytical instrumentation used in mineralogy and petrology (SEM and XRF) as well as learn invaluable techniques about the care and handling of museum collections. Partnerships between museums and universities such as this: 1) provide undergraduate students with memorable experiential, service-learning opportunities; 2) emphasize the importance of museums and their enormous educational impact on the general public; and 3) support citizen science as an important mechanism to preserve the past while building new knowledge for future generations.