These tools help you identify minerals! The tools include hand lenses (lower left), a penny for testing hardness (center), a streak plate (lower right), and an identification guidebook (top).
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Windows to the Universe

Make Your Own Mineral Identification Kit!

Stick these things into a small bag and take them wherever you go hunting for minerals.

  1. A hand lens lets you look closely at small mineral crystals or fossils.
  2. A small, white porcelain plate is used for a streak test.
  3. A penny and a small glass plate are useful for testing hardness.
  4. Kits with minerals that are labeled with their names can be handy. Compare minerals that you find to minerals in the kit.
  5. Printouts of the examples of crystal shapes from Windows to the Universe (or see if your book has similar pictures) allow you to identify crystal shapes of minerals.
  6. Bring a pad and a pencil to write down where you find minerals.
  7. A book about rocks and minerals that has nice color pictures and language that you understand

Last modified March 13, 2003 by Lisa Gardiner.

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Windows to the Universe, a project of the National Earth Science Teachers Association, is sponsored in part is sponsored in part through grants from federal agencies (NASA and NOAA), and partnerships with affiliated organizations, including the American Geophysical Union, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Earth System Information Partnership, the American Meteorological Society, the National Center for Science Education, and TERC. The American Geophysical Union and the American Geosciences Institute are Windows to the Universe Founding Partners. NESTA welcomes new Institutional Affiliates in support of our ongoing programs, as well as collaborations on new projects. Contact NESTA for more information. NASA ESIP NCSE HHMI AGU AGI AMS NOAA