"Mineral Detectives!" is one of eighteen lessons in the "Private Whys?" integrated science unit, which uses a guided inquiry investigation to teach students in grades three through five about the role of minerals in our lives. The University of North Texas developed "Private Whys?" with funding from the Copper…

Of this series of Science Readers, Books I, II, and III are adapted to secondary grades comprising pupils who are in their third and fourth years of school work. Both the reading and the subject matter of Books IV, V, and VI are suitable for grammar grades. At the end of each of the first three volumes is a short summary of the lesson. This may…

The understandings of properties that children develop in the context of rock and mineral identification point to the challenges of observing in a manner authentic to the discipline of geology. The notebook entries of 34 third graders written during the enactment of a commercial unit on earth materials were investigated for their descriptions of…