Crystals reveal their atomic structure. How? By their shapes. Here students make a variety of paper polygons and compare these to crystals they have grown or samples from their rock and mineral collections. 
 
Use this to learn and reinforce answers to questions such as: 
❑ What angles does a crystal have? 
❑ Do minerals grow regular crystalline shapes?
 
Concepts Addressed
♦  Minerals have specific physical properties (hardness, etc)
♦  Minerals are crystalline
♦  Minerals are naturally occurring
 
Standards Addressed
NGSS MS-ESS2-1
TEKS 6.6C
 
Materials Needed: Rock and mineral samples, building brick toys, scissors, magnifying lens, tape, copies of paper geometric models (pattern included)
 
Teaching Time   About 30-40 min. 
 
Student Sheets   Scaffolded writing prompts & lab reporting 
 
Answer Keys and Teacher Notes address most questions and issues that might arise in this study—you shouldn’t have to do any outside research unless you want to.

Answer Keys and Teacher Notes address most questions and issues that might arise in this study—you shouldn’t have to do any outside research unless you want to.

​

Connect with me: If you have questions or problems, please let me know and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

 

This resource (along with all resources sold on this site) can be found inside the membership. For information on that option, click here.

Terms of Use   Copyright © Carolyn Balch. All rights reserved by the author. This product is to be used by the original downloader only. Copying for more than one teacher, classroom, department, school, or school system is prohibited. This product may not be distributed or displayed digitally for public view. Failure to comply is a copyright infringement and a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Clipart and elements found in this PDF are copyrighted and cannot be extracted and used outside of this file without permission or license. Intended for classroom and personal use ONLY.