Teachers’ corner
Free, ad-free materials for bringing stones into the classroom. Everything is CC BY-SA 4.0: copy it, adapt it, share it.
Materials
- Printable stone cardsA card with a photo for every stone, four per A4 page. Sets for minerals, rocks, stones of Türkiye and the Mohs scale.
- “What is this stone?” wizardFor identifying the stones pupils collect with observations and simple tests.
- Learn guidesThe Mohs scale, the rock cycle, mineral or rock and more; short and sourced.
- GlossaryFrom cleavage to streak, the terms used in lessons in plain words.
- Stone mapWhere stones are found around the world and in Türkiye.
Activity ideas
Hardness ranking
Give groups a few stones with a fingernail, a copper coin, a steel nail and a piece of glass. They record what scratches what in a table and rank the stones by hardness, then compare their result with the Mohs scale.
Mohs hardness scale guide →Stone detective
Pupils bring a stone from the schoolyard or the road. They note its colour, shine, grain and streak, use the wizard to find the most likely candidates and discuss why they cannot be certain.
“What is this stone?” wizard →A rock-cycle story
Have pupils write the journey of a grain of sand: it breaks off a granite, travels down a river, becomes sandstone and then quartzite. They use the example rocks on the cards in their story.
Rock cycle guide →Fake or real?
Compare a glass bead with a piece of quartz, and a dyed stone with a natural one. Pupils discuss which clues work and which mislead.
Fake gemstones guide →Test the claim
Take a claim such as “this stone relieves stress” and plan with the class how it could be tested: a control group, a blind trial, placebo. A concrete way to teach the scientific method.
Healing crystals: what science says →
Safety: do not let pupils taste stones or breathe their dust. Wear safety glasses for scratch and vinegar tests. Do not bring toxic or fibrous minerals (cinnabar, galena, chrysotile and so on) into the classroom.