The Streak Color Test

On Monday, Laura and I successfully introduced our 7th lesson on minerals.  We had a substitute teacher again for the lesson, but it was the same woman as last time and she was a great help in introducing us to the class and making sure that the students were respectful.  Even though we were given an hour to set up, we finished setting up rather early, and just sat down to go over our plan once more.

This lesson was incorporating a new test to learn more about minerals, which was the streak color test.  Laura and I wanted to make sure that the students remembered the important objective from last week before they got started with their new investigation.  The students responded with answers that made it clear that they grasped the fact that all minerals are different, based on various shapes, colors, textures, etc.  It was time to make some streaks!  We made sure to write two main questions that we would make clear to the students that they had to be thinking about them throughout the lesson to write about in their reflection at the end.  We then had the students sort out the 12 minerals by color for a few minutes, and then discussed that what they just gathered were properties based on observable color, or colors that they see with their eyes.  Then it was time to teach the students about the identifiable color which scientists try to find with the powdered form of the mineral.  Laura and I wrote both definitions of these terms on the board to incorporate new vocabulary into the lesson. 

We then introduced the streak test, and how this is a way that scientists find a mineral's identifiable color.  Laura demonstrated how to streak the tiles, making sure that the students did it gently so that they would not scratch the tile.  We explained that some of the minerals will make a better visible streak on the white tile, while others may be easier to see on the black tile.  The students then began with their investigations, recording the color of the mineral's streak with either words or an actual streak with the mineral on the paper.  We gave the students a little over 20 minutes to work with the 12 minerals, and then gave them a 5 minute heads-up that they would be wrapping up their work, even if they had not finished all of the minerals.  We made sure that they were still thinking about the two questions addressed at the beginning of the lesson so that they would have some ideas to write about in their reflections.  Laura and I had used the reflection last week, and it was a great success, so we decided to incorporate it in this lesson yet again.  We were able to finish on time, as well as to clean up all the materials.  Students who were finished with their streak test early started reading information on Hematite and Graphite in their journals.

The students shared their reflections, and it was nice to see that they actually learned new vocabulary words, as well as being able to answer the two questions on the board.  These questions were whether all the minerals made a streak and if the streak that the minerals made were the same colors as their observable colors.  The students made it clear that their findings showed that the streak marks were not always the same color as the visual color of each mineral.  Our lesson was a success!  Even though we did not incorporate technology into our lesson this week, we have used overheads in the past and also plan on using brainpop or some other tool for the next lesson on shining a light on each mineral.  I cannot believe we only have 2 lessons left!