Pikes Peak Pebble Pups

Paleo Poetry

2012-01-25T08:51:00.000-08:00

The Student Paleontologist: on the Pathway to Discovery

By Steven Wade Veatch

Ancient worlds, long lost and hidden behind the murky mists of time,
wait for students to discover the new answers most sublime—
to inspect, reconstruct and peer into an ancient, primordial world:
allowing student paleontologist’s answers to be inexorably unfurled.

The light of knowledge burns with passion by young scholars so enthused
as the exciting tools of these new scientists are imaginatively used
to study fossil bones, petrified trees and cones, and an impression in shale,
pollen and spores, tree ring’s revelations, even a trace fossil dinosaur trail.

The fossil materials are brought back carefully in jackets to the paleo lab,
where workers clean and stabilize fossils such as the impressive petrified crab.
Carefully examined with a microscope and viewed on a digital screen;
observations are made, hypothesis created—all based on what is seen.

Only a very small part of the fossil world has been currently uncovered—
while many more fossils of all sizes and shapes are waiting to be discovered.
Now it’s the student’s turn to work and ponder the pieces of data and reconstruct
these ancient worlds and add their findings to science that will eternally instruct.

Dedicated to my Pebble Pups

February Change of Pace: Art, Science, and Poetry

2012-01-21T21:36:00.000-08:00

This month and next month we are going to take a new, different, and fun direction. The Rocky Mountain Federation of Mineralogical Societies and the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies has a poetry division in the editor's contest, and I think the Pikes Peak Pebble Pups should enter the contest and learn some new skills and have fun at the same time.

Here is the idea: on one sheet of white paper, you are to draw a scene, landscape, dinosaur, volcano, a gold mine head frame--anything that has to do with our hobby. I think one of the best ways to start the art is to go to Hobby Lobby or WalMart and get a good, heavy tablet of white paper and a tin or box of inexpensive colored pencils and a pencil sharpener. You can do so many artistic things with colored pencils, and they are easy to work with.

On another sheet of paper, write a short poem of maybe four stanzas--you pick the number. Poems don't always have to rhyme, just remember they are powerful feelings you have about your subject. Use interesting words, words that fire us up when we read them. The last lines should have a good punch, something we might not expect is coming. THINK. Your poem must relate to your drawing. When you are done, get the artwork to me and the poem. One way is to mail them as soon as you are done in a large mailer, or bring them to the pebble pups meeting.

I will get them published in the various club newsletters, local newspapers, and maybe the rock gem, and fossil magazine that has published our science writing in the past. The main thing is to get your work entered in to the editor's contest so you can win ribbons and trophies. You will also learn at least two skills.

I know you can do the simple drawings and the poetry. I am not sure this has ever been done by a pebble pup group quite this way, so lets be the first. Below I short video on how to do a one type of a poem. You can also "Google" how to write a poem or go to the library and look in a poetry writing book. I have Poetry Writing for Dummies in my office!

View the video, find a nice table, play some cool music, and draw and write your poem that matches the picture you create. Email me when you have finished.

This program is also open to anyone interested in what we are doing no matter where you live. We have an Internet program for pebble pups that works from this blogsite, and you are free to join us and be a part of all that we learn----at least through the blogsite. We will send you each month's learning materials and some months we can send specimens. If you are interested in joining us, please check out this blog and send me an email.

Ok, back to the project, below are some resources and a video to check out; go through each one and then become an artist, a poet, and tear it up! You may enter multiple times. You will be a celebrated paleo poet or rock poet.

Cool resources:
Colorado Wildlife Coloring Book

Ice Age Giant Mammal Coloring Book

Instructional videos on how to write a poem:

Joint Field Trip of all Colordo Pebble Pups January 21, 2012

2012-01-18T01:10:00.000-08:00

The Lake George, Colorado Springs, and Boulder Pebble Pups will join the fossil kids of the Western Interior Paleontological Society on a behind-the scenes tour of the Snowmass Mastodon Project that is underway at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science on January 21, 2012. The students will meet with Dr. Ian Miller. Next on the agenda is lunch and then there will be a tour of the paleontological area and then the mineral hall by Steven Veatch and other adult leaders. The video below tells about the project.

Western Museum of Mining and Industry to Host Family Geology Day

2012-01-11T09:23:00.000-08:00

Join us on January 14th, 2012 (10:00 a.m - 3:00 p.m.) for a day of fossils, minerals, rocks and more.

The WMMI is hosting a Family Day with a focus on geology. Representatives from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Florissant Fossil Beds, and Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society will be here and offer interactive and hands-on demonstrations regarding geology.

There will also be demonstrations on modern day gold assaying. Special presentations will be at 11:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. All included with regular admission.

For further information contact Dave Futey at 719-488-0880

Theresa Mine near Victor, Colorado

CSMS Junior member taking a break from gold panning

Learn how to gold pan during Family Geology Day.
Note gold flakes in pan and small nuggets in the rock.

Merit Badge Opportunity: Earth Processes

2012-01-06T00:45:00.000-08:00

Earth Processes

While the ground beneath our feet may seem solid and stable, our Earth is actually an amazingly dynamic and fluid planet. Huge sections of the crust, called “plates,” are constantly on the move, spreading apart from each other at some places like under the Atlantic ocean, sliding past each other at other places like the San Andreas Fault, and crashing together at still other places to lift up mountains like the Himalayas. This unit will teach you about such processes, the definition of a rock, and how rocks of different sorts are formed by earth processes.

Activity 1. What is a rock.
Learn the definition of a rock and the three rock types (igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic). Collect at least one of each of the three types of rocks.

Activity 2. Plate tectonics and the rock cycle.

Our earth is made of huge segments, or plates, that are constantly on the move, and as they move about, they help to recycle rocks and to create the processes and conditions that lead to igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks Make a poster showing the rock cycle. In the poster, include specific examples of the different sorts of rocks you might find along different parts of the rock cycle.

Activity 3. Igneous rocks.

Learn about different sorts of igneous rocks, how they are formed, and how they differ from one another, such as granite versus basalt versus obsidian versus pumice. Then do no one of the following activities:

Igneous rock can be made on the surface of the
earth by volcanic eruptions. Drawing by Jack
Shimon, CSMS Pebble Pup

a) Use a sugar candy recipe to demonstrate the effects of quick versus slow cooling and gas bubbles in forming the texture f an igneous rock;

b) make a plaster or clay volcano and set it off for your fellow club members; or

c) make an igneous rock collection of three or more different types.

Activity 4 Sedimentary rocks.
Learn about wind and water erosion and deposition and chemical precipitates and evaporates in order to understand how sedimentary rocks form. Then do one of the following activities:

a) make sandstone, conglomerate, and breccia and create a geologic column of these in a milk carton;

b) make a plaster or clay volcano and set it off your fellow club members;

c) make an igneous rock collection of three or more different types.

A sedimentary rock. Drawn by
Jack Shimon CSMS Pebble Pup

Rivers deposit sediments that ultimately become sedimentary rocks.
Drawing by Jack Shimon

Activity 5. Metamorphic rocks.
Learn about “parent rocks” and the formation of metamorphic rock due to heat and pressure. Then do one of the following activities:

a) using clays of different colors as your “parent rocks,” make a metamorphic rock with pressure and heat by twisting and rolling clays together and then baking them in an oven;

b) make a metamorphic rock collection with three or moer different types

Insturctions to earn badge: complete one of the above activities to earn your merit badge on Earth Processes in each group of the three rock types. The easiest way to complete this badge is to look for these rocks on a collecting trip, trade with other pebble pups, or buy them. If you wish to do the other items to earn the merit badge, place contact me for detailed insturctions.

A metamorphic rock. Drawing by Jack Shimon
CSMS Pebble Pups

Backup Material

What is a rock?

A mineral is an inorganic chemical substance created in nature. “Inorganic” means it is not alive. Minerals often produce crystals, and a particular type of mineral always has the same chemical make-up that gives it a distinctive crystal form and colors. Minerals are the individual units or building b locks that, brought together, make up a rock. Rocks are inorganic solids from the earth’s crust that are made up of one or more minerals. To think about this a bit, stop and think about the people in our rock club. Everyone in the club represent an individual mineral. You have boy members, girl minerals, mother and father minerals, etc. Scattered around town, each is an individual, but when you bring them together in the same room, the individual boys and girls and parents become something new: a rock club. Just so, when individual minerals come together in a group, they create a rock.

Granite is a good example for showing how rocks are made of collections of minerals because crystals of the individual minerals making granite are especially large and visible as compared to some other types of rocks. Although different types of granite will have different combinations of minerals, most granite is made of the minerals feldspar, quartz, mica, and hornblende. The quartz will tend to be clear or milky and shiny like glass. The feldspar might be white, gray, or pink and somewhat dull. The mica will appear as silver or black glittery flakes. And the hornblende will appear as black specks. Look as a specimen of granite under a magnifying glass to see the different types of minerals in order to gain an appreciation of how a rock is made up of different minerals that have grown together.

Rocks are divided into three groups:

1. Igneous rocks cooled and crystallized from hot, molten magma, either on the surface of the earth or deep below ground. “Igneous” is derived from the Latin word igneus, meaning fire.” Examples of igneous rocks your kids might collect include granite, basalt, rhyolite, obsidian, gabbro tuff, andesite, pegmatite, or pumice.

Fossils such as this
trilobite may be
found in sedimentary
rocks.
(art by Lauren Ingalsbe)

2. Sedimentary rocks formed by gravel, sand, or mud that got buried and hardened due to pressure from overlying rocks Sedimentary rocks start by processes of erosion that create gravel, sand, or mud that settles to the bottom of a basin (ocean, lake, or river valley) in layers. These layers eventually harden to become conglomerate, sandstone, or shale. “Sedimentary” is derived from the Latin word sedimentum, which means “to settle or sink down.” Sedimentary rocks also include those that precipitate out of water, either through chemical action or evaporation, such as limestone, gypsum, or halite (salt). Examples of sedimentary rocks your kids might collect are shale, sandstone, breccia, conglomerate, limestone, coquina, diatomite, dolomite, travertine, or gypsum.

3. Metamorphic rocks are pre existing rocks that have been altered by erxtreme heat and/or pressure to create a rock with a new form and mineral structure. “Metamorphic” is derived from the Greek word metamorphosis, which means “to change” or “to transform.” Examples of metamorphic rocks are marble, gneiss, slate, schist, quartzite, soapstone, greenstone, and serpentine.

On Earth, rocks are constantly moving through a cycle of formation and change through processes involved with plate tectonics. The trust of the earth is divided into a number of plates that float and travel over the mantle. Much of the earth's seismic activity (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, mountain building) occurs at the boundaries of these plates, where plates collide, diverge, slide past one another, or where one overrides another. In the process, new rock is formed, old rock is worn down and re-deposited as sediment, and other rocks are changed through heat and pressure. You can use various types of rocks to illustrate this rock cycle.

Igneous rocks formed from hot, molten magma, either deep underground (e.g.,
granite) or extruded onto the planet's surface (e.g., basalt). Igneous processes can form volcanoes and mountains that lift land up and create new land.

Sedimentary rocks, on the other hand result from processes that wear the earth down. Gravity, combined with the weathering properties of wind, rain, and freezing, disintegrates rocks, breaks them into smaller components, and transports them into valleys and basins as gravel, sand, or mud, where they pile up in layers and eventually harden into the sedimentary rocks known as conglomerate, sandstone, and mudstone or shale.

Sometimes, igneous and sedimentary rocks get buried under other rocks and get caught up into immense forces involved in plate tectonics and mountain building. When this happens, these rocks get heated and squeezed, and the pressures can change their structures and transform them into whole new rocks, known as metamorphic rocks. These include rocks such as gneiss, schist, slate, or marble. Here are some illustrations of how rocks move through a "rock cycle":

Granite is an igneous rock that hardened and crystallized from molten magma deep beneath the earth. You'll see bits of crystallized quartz in granite. When granite weathers, these quartz crystals get worn down into grains of sand. When deposited in a valley, lakebed, or ocean, sand can harden into the sedimentary rock called sandstone. If the sandstone is buried and subjected to heat and pressure, it will transform into the metamorphic rock called quartzite.

Also, the bits of flaky mica and the feldspar in ligneous granite can get worn down into silt and clay. When that hardens, it becomes sedimentary shale. And when shale is
subjected to heat and pressure, the original mica re-crystallizes to form flat, platy layers of metamorphic slate or schist.

The following are common igneous rocks that kids may be able to collect if they live in the right area of the country, or that they may be able to purchase from rock dealers, or that they may be able to trade through the mail as a club project with kids in other AFMS/FRA clubs who live in areas where igneous rocks are common:

• Andesite is a gray to black volcanic rock ,with a high silica content that commonly erupts as thick, sticky lava flows from stratovolcanoes, such as those in the AndesMountains, which gave this igneous rock its name.

• Basalt is generally a hard, dense, heavy, dark gray or black rock formed from magma that flowed out of a volcano or vent in thick streams or sheets. Basalt can come in a variety of forms. A' a (pronounced "ah-ah") is variety that cooled with a jagged, rough and rubbly surface. Pahoehoe (pronounced "pah-hoi-hoi") cooled with a glassy smooth hummocky or ropy texture.

• Gabbro is a dark (often black), coarse-grained, intrusive igneous rock chemically equivalent to basalt but that cooled deep beneath the Earth's surface, resulting in large crystal structures within the rock that sparkle in the light.

• Granite cooled from magma deep under the earth and as a result usually has large mineral crystals all grown together. Depending on the type of granite, these minerals might include quartz, feldspar, mica, olivine, etc.

• Obsidian is a heavy, smooth, and shiny volcanic glass rich in iron and magnesium that cooled very quickly during an eruption, so quickly that crystals didn't have time to grow, thus resulting in glass. Chemically, it's often identical to pumice, which makes it terrific to use for compare-and-contrast with pumice.

•Pegmatite is a very coarse-grained igneous granite consisting of quartz, feldspar, and
mica and commonly also containing large gemstone crystals such as tourmaline,aquamarine, and kunzite. Pegmatites form as a magma that cools quickly after intruding as a dike or sill into other rock.

• Pumice is formed from magma that shoots lout during a particularly violent, explosive eruption. Gases dissolved in liquid magma expand rapidly during the eruption, making pumice extremely frothy (like froth created when you shake a soda can and open it). Millions of tiny gas bubbles leave cavities shot through pumice, making it extremely light-so light that it can often float on water!

• Rhyolite is often a banded light-colored, fine-grained rock that formed when thick, sticky lava flowed for relatively short distances.

• Scoria is similar to basalt, but whereas basalt usually flows in a thick, fluid layer from a volcano, scoria is shot into the air as a cinder during explosive eruption events. Thus, like Swiss cheese, it's peppered with holes from gas bubbles, making it much lighter than basalt.

• Tuff is volcanic ash and cinder that settles while still quite hot and becomes welded and compacted into layers of coarse, often lightweight rock that's usually white or gray or cream in color.

The following are common sedimentary rocks that kids may be able to collect if they live in the right area of the country, or that they may be able to purchase from rock dealers, or that they may be able to trade through the mail as a club project with kids in other AFMS/FRA clubs that live in areas where sedimentary rocks are common:
• Breccia is a clastic sedimentary rock composed of cobble- and pebble-sized rock
fragments that are sharp and angular, indicating that the rock fragments had not been transported very far before being deposited and buried.

• Coal originated from compressed vegetation, often derived from swamps, that was buried rapidly in thick masses. High in combustible carbon content, coal-burning
facilities are the largest source for generation of electricity.

• Conglomerate is a clastic sedimentary rock formed by the cementing of rounded cobbles and pebbles that have been worn smooth during transport in streams, rivers or ocean shores.

• Coquina is similar to conglomerate, but rather than being formed by rounded cobbles and pebbles, it's formed by masses of broken seashells, coral fragments, and other biologically-derived materials that are poorly cemented together.

• Diatomite, a soft chalk-like sedimentary rock, is composed primarily of silica from the fossilized shells of billions and billions of microscopic diatoms, which are algal-like organisms at the base of the ocean's food chain. It has many industrial uses as a filter (you'll see it in hardware stores with pool supplies), a mild abrasive, and as filler (as in house paints); under high magnification, the individual diatom shells look like snowflakes.

• Gypsum is a chemical sedimentary rock precipitated from highly saturated salt waters that left behind thick deposits of sulfate hemihydrate. Gypsum is the main
ingredient in plaster of Paris and is also used in drywall, so you may well be surrounded by gypsum at this very moment.

• Limestone is a type of non-clastic, chemical sedimentary rock also called calcium carbonate because of its high content of calcium. It generally forms as a limy ooze
precipitated on the ocean floor and includes shells from marine animals.

• Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock formed from the cementing of sand-sized grains, often from minerals in groundwater, along with pressure.

• Shale is one of the most common sedimentary rocks. It's composed of silt, mud, or clay that has been compacted to form a solid rock.

• Travertine is a form of calcium carbonate (like limestone) deposited through the action of water, such as mineral-rich springs. It's often soft and beautifully banded,
making it a favored sculpting stone. It's also sometimes called onyx and alabaster..

The following are common metamorphic rocks that kids may be able to collect if they live in the right area of the country, or that they may be able to purchase from rock dealers, or that they may be able to trade through the mail as a club project with kids in other AFMS/FRA clubs that live in areas where metamorphic rocks are common:

• Gneiss (pronounced "nice") is a "high grade" metamorphic rock derived from various sources (e.g., granite, shale, conglomerate, etc.) that were subjected to intense heat and pressure, heat so high that the rock nearly melted to a magma, resulting in minerals that drew together in distinct banding patterns under the high pressure.

• Greenstone is a fine-grained massive metamorphic rock with a dull luster that comes in varying shades of green; in California, it's associated with gold-bearing veins in the Mother Lode mining country.

• Marble is limestone that has been altered through metamorphic action. Soft, easily carved, semi-translucent, and capable of taking a polish, it's often used by sculptors and builders. Marble comes invarious forms, depending on the elements contained in its parent rock. For instance, limestone marble contains mostly calcium carbonate and may have interesting veining (or "marbling") with colors due to different mineral impurities. Dolomite marble had a parent rock of dolomite, which is similar to
limestone, but with magnesium in addition to calcite as a constituent mineral. And strong>mariposite (named after Mariposa, California, where it occurs in abundance) is a form of dolomite marble with a high green chromium muscovite mica content that gives it a distinctive green marbling.

• Quartzite is a massive, medium-grained metamorphic rock with a sugary texture often derived from sedimentary sandstone.

• Serpentine is a fairly soft metamorphic rock that may be waxy to the touch and has apple-green to black, mottled coloring that can look like serpent scales. It's the
official California State Rock.

• Slate is a "low grade" metamorphic rock (meaning it was subjected to only low heatand pressure) formed from sedimentary shale; it splits, or cleaves, in flat surfaces, and has been used as roofing shingles and blackboards.

• Soapstone consists mostly of an impure, massive variety of talc. Soft, with a pearly sheen, it's a popular sculpting material, but has many other uses, such as in the manufacture of laboratory tabletops, firebricks, and electrical apparatus due to its resistance to heat,electricity, and acids.

Guest Blogger Victor Gordillo

2011-12-31T13:46:00.000-08:00

The fossilization of organisms is quite an incredible process, and only occurs during exceptionally rare occasions—just as in the case of this tiny cone (Figure 1). When the conditions were perfect some 67 million years ago, this small, delicate part of a giant prehistoric tree became a part of the fossil record ("Science Olympiad: Virtual”). This prehistoric cone comes from the Metasequoia or dawn red wood tree and is one of the oldest species of seed-bearing plants.

Figure 1. A 67 million-year-old petrified Sequoia dakotensis cone from the Hell Creek Formation. The matrix covering this delicate fossil has been carefully removed. S.W. Veatch specimen, photo by S. W. Veatch, Oct 2011.

The scientific name this fossil cone is Sequoia dakotensis, and goes back to the Cretaceous period. Although the genus is extant (still in existence), the species is extinct (Blueme, 2007). This particular specimen was found in the Hell Creek Formation in North Dakota, a heavily studied formation containing a variety of upper Cretaceous organisms; the Hell Creek Formation is primarily in Montana and stretches into portions of North and South Dakota and into parts of Wyoming ("The virtual fossil”). The fossil cone depicted in Figure 1 is approximately ten centimeters across and is three grams in mass.

This tiny cone dropped to the ground one day long ago in the Cretaceous Period and likely rolled into a depression of some sort and remained there just a short time. This cone was then buried under sediment from an event that caused mud and sand to be washed into a depression that permitted rapid covering and burial of the cone. Over eons of time, water— infused with minerals, especially silica— penetrated the cone and slowly began to replace the organic matter of the cone with these minerals (Hamilton C & R.).

Taxonomy
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Plantae
Subkingdom: Viridaeplantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Euphyllophytina
Infraphylum: Radiatopses
Class: Pinopsida
Order: Pinales
Family: Cupcessaceae
Genus: Sequoia
Species: Dakotensis
Botanical Name: Sequoia dakotensis

Although today North Dakota's ancient Cretaceous forests are long gone, they have left behind amazing badlands and stunning landscapes containing petrified tree trunks and fossil cones.

References Cited:

Bluemle , J. (2007, July 27). North Dakota's Petrified Wood. Retrieved from https://www.dmr.nd.gov/ndgs/ndnotes/ndn3_h.htm

Hamilton, C., & R., n.d.). Science Views: The Formation of Fossils. Retrieved from http://www.scienceviews.com/dinosaurs/fossilformation.html

Science Olympiad: Virtual petrified wood museum. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://petrifiedwoodmuseum.org/soconiferophyta.htm

The virtual fossil museum. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://
www.fossilmuseum.net/Fossil_Sites/hellcreek.htm

Guest Blogger: Kurt Lahmers

2011-11-21T15:26:00.000-08:00

The Garden Park area of Cañon City, Colorado is well-known for the large number of dinosaur skeletons that have been found there since the 1870s.

A closer look at a dinosaur bone found in the Garden Park area shows some interesting details on the end of the bone. The holes in the dinosaur bone shown in figure 1 used to be tube-like structures called Haversian canals. Haversian canals are branching channels where the blood vessels and nerve fibers are carried through the bone.

Figure 1. As shown in this photo, the Haversian canals have dried out, leaving hollow holes throughout the bone. Photo by K. Lahmers. S.W. Veatch specimen.

Surrounding these canals are bone tissues called osteons. The osteons are part of the cortical bone, or the compact bone. The cortical bone is the structure of bone that holds up the body, while on the other hand, the spongy bone marrow (cancellous bone) produces red blood cells. The cortical bone is the outside structure of the bone that surrounds the cancellous spongy bone.

Figure 2. This Jurassic dinosaur bone was once a rather large, live, and active dinosaur that was part of a prehistoric ecosystem that included streams and ponds. Photo by K. Lahmers. S.W. Veatch specimen.

This dinosaur bone that is part of this study is on siltstone. Siltstone is composed of very fine-grained sandstone that has been deposited as silt. Through heat and pressure, this silt compacted and hardened into siltstone. This material is found in semi-quiet depositional areas including ponds and lakes where standing or slow moving water permits fine-grained sandstone to fall to the lakebed forming silt. The dinosaur could have died either while in or near a body of water. Silt covered the bones and the water allowed silica to replace the cells, one-at-a-time over a millennia.

This large dinosaur bone(fugue 2)—petrified in what became known as the Morrison Formation—quietly waited to be discovered and studied by the Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society(CSMS) Pebble Pups and Junior members. This paper is the result of a CSMS Pebble Pup and Junior member study group to: 1) look some of the structures of a dinosaur bone and, 2) to learn how to take pictures of paleontological specimens. We accomplished our mission in the 45-minute monthly class. More exciting studies and papers are planned.

Bibliography

Unk., . "Bone." Bone. Internet BioEd Project, Unk.. Web. 20 Jul 2011. .

Unk., . "Siltstone." Siltstone. LSF, 18/07/00. Web. 17 Jul 2011. .

Unk., . "Siltstone." Siltstone. B2bchinastone.com, 2008. Web. 21 Jul 2011. .

Unk. "Haversian Canal." Wikipedia. March 2011. 1. USA: Wikipedia Foundation, 2005. Web. .

Author’s biography: Kurt is a member of the CSMS Junior study group and is a 9^th grade student at Doherty High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He is a respected mentor to the younger Pebble Pups.

Earning a Merit Badge: Rocking on the Computer

2011-10-25T21:37:00.000-07:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Pumpkins from the field. Photo by S. Veatch

By exploring the web we can find all sorts of interesting things related to our hobby. I am listing just a few here for you to think about. This is only the tip of the iceberg!

Making presentations with your computer.
One of the things I enjoy most about belonging to a rock club are the presentations made by fellow club members. These are often slide shows of a collecting trip or a tip to the Denver Gem Show or the one in Tucson, but they also include show-and-tell presentations of a member's collection, a demonstration on a particular lapidary skill, or a story about an old mine near a ghost town.

With the widespread use of digital cameras, these presentations increasingly are being given entirely off a computer through a digital projection system using PowerPoint, a presentation software made by Microsoft. Students in school are often called to create PowerPoint presentations as group homework projects. It is really fun to incorporate video clips and sound. Here is a silent movie about a volcano made by a CSMS pebble pup.

Digital photography.
At a more basic level, always bring a digital camera on your collecting trips so that you can photograph the surrounding countryside, the specific locality, and what you are finding. You can pick out the best shots, burn them to a CD or jump drive, and share your discovery with other kids in the club. In this merit badge exercise you can see how far your computer skill will take you and how you can apply those skills toward rock hounding. I like to write short, one or two page articles using several photographs or artwork.

Indian arrowhead from El Paso County, Colorado. Photo by Patrick Henry Elementary 4th grade student.

Beyond amazingly shaped rock, probably a limestone. Photo by Patrick Henry Elementary 4th grade student.

A covelite specimen. Photo by Photo by Patrick Henry Elementary 4th grade student.

These images made by 4th grade students have been staged, that is interesting materials have been used in the background to create interest in the specimen. A small "egg" of silly putty from Wal Mart can be used behind the specimen to get them to the desired position. You can also buy at Wal Mart a very small tripod to mount your camera on. My camera was mounted on one of these inexpensive Wal Mart tripods for each photo the 4th grade student took. This stabilizes the picture. I then set the timer for ten seconds. The student simply pushed the exposure button down half way for auto-focus to work, and then the student pushed the exposure button the rest of the way, starting the timer. At that point everyone should leave the table area where the photo shoot is going on and let the camera count down. This ensures there will be no one shaking the table. After 10 seconds go by, the camera takes a picture on its own.

Cataloging your collection electronically
When I was a kid, many years ago, I used a composition notebook to catalog my fossil collection, listing new fossils as I got them. With the advent of the computer, collectors can make a simple Excel spreadsheet that can track your specimens. The columns are master fields and they have titles at the top. Then you enter the information in ROWS under the fields. The key is that each specimen must have a specimen number that is unique an has only ONE line associated with the specimen in the spreadsheet. Then your master fields would look something like this:
Number Species Genus Common Name Time Period Formation Location  State GPS    Date Found

With these master fields, you will enter data into rows; each specimen represents one row and has a unique number. You could begin with number 1. Now, if you had say 85 fossils, you could then do sorts, and have your Excel spreadsheet show you all fossils found in the Morrison Formation, or you could do a sort on all fossils from the Eocene epoch, or you could even do a sort on all fossils from Texas. So, when you do a sort on the Morrison Formation, the spreadsheet will show you everything from that formation ONLY; similarly, if you sort all Eocene fossils, the spreadsheet will ONLY show you those fossils from the Eocene, nothing else. You can create even more master fields, such as dollar amount if purchased.  All of the fossils could be on the first page of your spreadsheet. The second sheet could be for rocks with these master fields:

Number Rock name Time Period Formation   Location State GPS Date Found/Purchased

The third sheet could be for minerals with these master fields:

Number Mineral    Variety Location State GPS Date Found/Purchased Amount Paid/Value

Writing an Article with your computer.
I like to combine research, artwork, and photography to create both long and short articles. With careful work and organization, you can produce a written piece suitable for publication. Contact us for more details.

Artwork by CSMS Pebble Pup Nicholas.

Artowrk by CSMS Pebble Pup Ryan.

Maps and GPS to find your way.
I use several maps when I go to an area to do research or collect. Fist, I always get the US Forest Service Map of the area since it has all of the roads and shows public and private land. Next I take a 7.5 USGS quadrangle map with even more details. I have found it very cost effective to take the maps that I will be using a lot to DocuMart and have them laminated. Now the maps will last forever.

To get topographical and geological maps visit the Colorado Geological Survey: http://geosurvey.state.co.us/Pages/CGSHome.aspx or go to the web site of the U.S. Geological survey: http://www.usgs.gov/.

On the web, mapping services such as Google Earth (http://earth.google.com/) combine traditional road maps with satellite images that provide a close-up look at your site.

The Global Positioning System (GPS)
GPS has transformed how we might go about finding our favorite collecting spots, even in desert localities where the unmarked fork in the road turns out to be three or four forks, none seeming to line up exactly with the guidebook in our map. We are going to have some field trips where the adult members of the pebble pups will be providing a demo of GPS in action by doing a "geocache" or treasure hunt: in a container or bag filled with fossils or minerals, it will be hidden and the pebble pups will get its GPS coordinates. And then the pebble pups play GPS hide-and-go seek until the cache has been located.

Activity 1: Exploring the web.
Explore the web via search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, or Ask.con. Come up with topics like quarts or dinosaurs to see what you can find.

Activity 2: Reporting on your favorite web sites.
Explore the web on our own to find two or three web sites related to your interest (minerals, fossils, geodes, meteorites, lapidary arts, natural history museums, etc.). Write down the web address of each site and a brief description of what you found to share on the site with this blog.

Activity 3: Making a presentation with the computer.
Create a PowerPoint presentation about your favorite rocks, minerals, fossils. or collecting site using images taken with a digital camera. If you have the right equipment and skills, you can even incorporate video clips.

Activity 4. Cataloging your collection electronically.
Create an electronic catalog or list of your frock, mineral, or fossil collection that includes the master Fields that are important about the specimen.

Activity 5. Maps and GPS to find your way.
Learn about different types of traditional paper maps (roadmaps, topographic maps, geologic maps). Then explore mapping features that are on the web, such as MapQuest or Google Earth or images available via the websites of some of the geological surveys. Learn about GPS and how it can help you find collecting spots. Write a one-page report on what you have found (this requirement can be met by attending one of the many field trips we have and use GPS).

To earn your Rocking on the Computer badge, you need to complete at least three of the five activities. When you have earned your badge, let your pebble pup leaders know.

This is a Porcupine Production and brought to you by all of your friends with the Pikes Peak Pebble Pups, or the 4Ps.

Steven Veatch, the Pikes Peak Pebble Pups leader

Earning a Merit Badge in Gold Panning & Prospecting

2011-09-16T17:35:00.000-07:00

GOLD HAS BEEN HIGHLY VALUED throughout human history as a precious metal. these merit badge activities will teach you why. You can lean about gold as a mineral, its uses and history, and even how to find a gold flake or nugget of your own. To earn your gold panning and prospecting badge, you need to complete at least 3 of the six activities below. When you have earned your badge please let your pebble pup leaders know. You may have up to one year to complete this badge it needed.

Activity 1. Gold as a mineral. Buy a book on minerals or pick one up at the library to learn about the properties of gold as a mineral: its color, streak, cleavage, fracture, luster, hardness, crystal shape, and weight or specific gravity. Compare all these to properties of pyrite, or "fool's gold."

Activity 2. Write a report about why gold is considered valuable and the many ways it's used. Consider using artwork. Turn your one-page report into your pebble pup leaders for publication in the club's newsletter. If you need ANY help just ask your pebble pup leaders.

Activity 3. Gold throughout history.
Gold has been valued, sought, and fought over throughout history. Learn about a historical event involving gold and write a one or two page report about it for your club newsletter. Consider using your own artwork. If you need ANY help just ask your pebble pup leaders.

Activity 4. Gold resources in your own state or region.
Where has gold been found near your? From your library, from adult members of your club or society, or from the Colorado State Geological Survey (http://geosurvey.state.co.us/Pages/CGSHome.aspx), learn and then write a report about areas closest to you where gold has been found. Be creative. You might go to the site and take a picture or two, make a map, or include original artwork. If artwork and photos are used, this should be about two pages.

Activity 5. Panning for gold. This can be accomplished at the Denver Gem and Mineral Show field trip on Saturday, September 16, 2011. The Gold Prospectors of Colorado will have a demonstration set up so that each pebble pup can participate and pan gold until they learn how to do it. Knowing how to pan gold, use a sucker bottle, and how to put your gold nuggets into little jars is so much fun. There will be a field trip announced at the next pebble pup meeting where we can go and pan gold at the Western Musuem of Mining and Industry. Going to this museum is free to pebble pups, and the leaders will demonstrate all that you need to know.

Note on writing reports: the CSMS and Lake George Pebble Pups have been very effective in writing reports and having them published. Many of the pups have received regional and national writing awards. Several of the work of the pebble pups have been published in international magazines. We want to continue that work. If you have any questions email your pebble pup leader for direct help with any written project that you should undertake for this or any other merit badge. Articles published in magazines need references, and we will be happy to show you how to do this.

Poured gold dore from Cripple Creek, Colorado.
Photo courtesy of Cripple Creek and Victor Gold Mining Company

Supplemental activities planned for next summer:
There will be a field trip to Cache Creek, Colorado near the small town of Granite where we will stake a claim for the morning and run sluice boxes and pan for gold. The date will be announced in one of our meetings and will be in the summer of 2012
.

A prospector is getting down to serious business with a sluice box

Useful websites to look at:
Gold prospecting
http://geology.com/usgs/gold-prospecting/
Gold information
http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/Alaska/mineral_gold.html
California gold
http://www.consrv.ca.gov/cgs/geologic_resources/gold/Pages/Index.aspx
Jefferson lab
http://education.jlab.org/itselemental/ele079.html

CSMS and Lake George Pebble Pups Field Trip to Denver Gem and Mineral Show

2011-09-16T10:46:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, September 17, The CSMS Pebble Pups and the Lake George Gem and Mineral Club Pebble Pups will meet at the Denver Gem and Mineral Show at 10 am. Go north on I25 and take exit 215 to the Merchandise Mart. The pups will tour the educational cases and then visit the USGS and other sites set up especially for kids. Go ahead and buy your tickets and wait for everyone by the front, just past the ropes. This will be a very exciting trip.

CSMS Pebble Pups Start 2011-2012 Academic Year Program

2011-09-16T10:36:00.000-07:00

The CSMS Pebble Pup program has started the 2011-2012 year with great success. The regular meetings, on the third Thursdays of each month, now start at 5:30 pm. This new format combines the Pebble Pups and the juniors—so that they work together on projects. Tonight everyone worked on an assignment of weighing and working with various kinds of rocks. Everyone enjoyed baked cookies and brownies and had time to feast, share rock stories, and have fun. Deerheart clam fossils, from a canyon near Austin, Texas, were provided to each Pebble Pup for their collection.

Summer 2011 Field Trips for Pikes Peak Pebble Pups

2011-07-20T16:20:00.000-07:00

This summer the Pikes Peak Pebble Pup (The Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society and the Lake George Gem and Mineral Club) had a great time collecting pyrite near the mining area of Leadville, Colorado where Jack Shimon, with the help of his dog Comet, found the best pyrite crystal of the day. Later in the summer we had an educational trip to the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. The trip to the monument was followed by collecting at the commercial Florissant Fossil Quarry. Everyone found leaves, bugs, spiders, and many other paleontological treasures. More trips are planned for this fall! We plan to continue educational programs with our Pebble Pup friends in the Denver area and the fossil youth of the Western Interior Paleontological Society. Please join us. In the meantime please enjoy the video below.

Earning a Merit Badge in Leadership

2011-07-15T23:12:00.000-07:00

Jack Shimon, a CSMS pebble pup, earned his merit badge by completing 3 activities. He had a lot of fun doing this.

Activity 1: Organize a group display, etc. Jack entered his fossil display in the junior competition at the RMFMS entitled “The Rudist of Bivalves”. He also put together a tri-fold display about the Pebble Pups group and what the club means to him. This display is on its way to a museum in Colorado Springs for temporary exhibition with his fossil.

Activity 2: Plan and Lead a Field trip- Jack planned an earthcaching trip to Monument Rock with his class mates. They went on May 3 and Jack led them to the site and asked questions about the geology: How tall do you think Monument Rock is? Guesses were 50-200 feet tall. Which was here first, the rock or the town? The rock. What is the rock made of? Nobody except Jack knew it is sandstone, but he taught the kids how sandstone weathers and is much softer then granite.

Activity 3: Manage a booth- Jack set up a rock/fossil and lemonade/cupcake stand to show off and sell some of his extra collection. He and Jane recruited their friends Hailey, Ty and Lexi Brennan (new Pebble Pups) and they hosted it together. Jack has also fulfilled part of Activity 7, become a mentor. It is his friendship with the Brennans and enthusiasm for sharing his interests that helped Ty decide to join Pebble Pups. Jack also made Ty a started rock collection with his extra stuff.

Another Trip to the Florissant Quarry

2011-06-24T13:01:00.000-07:00

The Florissant Fossil Quarry is the best place in the Pikes Peak region, and perhaps Colorado, to spend time looking for fossils. For $10 per hour, you get all the tools you need and all the fossils you can find. This site has been operated by the Clare family since the 1950s. There have been five generations of the Clare family living in Florissant. Today we were hosted by Cole Clare and one of the employees, Patrick.

A crew of fossil hunters are hard at work

Labradorite: study specimen for the CSMS pebble pups

2011-05-27T15:50:00.000-07:00

Labradorite is uncommon feldspar mineral that shows a play of colors when turned in the sunlight and this feature is called labradorescence. Labradorite has a hardness of 6-6.5 and a specific gravity that ranges from 2.68 to 2.72. The streak is white and the crystal belongs to the triclinic system. Labradorite is common in dark, mafic igneous rocks such as basalt and gabbro. This amazing mineral gets its name from being found in Labrador, Canada. It has other locations worldwide. Labradorite is found in large crystal masses.

The piece Jack is showing is a beautiful blue. All of the Pebble Pups and Junior members of the Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society (CSMS) were given a specimen of this to take home. Jack, one of our most hard working Pebble Pups is demonstrating the effect of labradorescence. Jack is working very hard on the merit badge program and is going to bring one of his friends to the next CSMS Pebble Pup/Junior meeting.

The Florissant Fossil Quarry: A Field Trip Guide

2011-05-18T09:05:00.000-07:00

By guest blogger Jack Shimon (CSMS pebbe pup)

The Florissant Fossil Quarry is a fun place to take friends when you definitely want to find a fossil and if your friends don’t always like to hike far. I like it because I made a friend who works there, and she has a dog named Jack. I’ve been there two times, and each trip I also went to the Florissant National Monument just down the street.

To get on the site they quarry needs to be open. All the information is on their website (florissantfossils.tripod.com). Unlike most collecting trips you also have to pay by the hour, $10 for kids, because the owners mine the quarry and bring the shale to you. They also have all the tools you need. Mostly you will find parts of leafs but we also found a fern and some lucky people found insects and even one bird.

CSMS Pebble Pup Jack Shimon is busy splitting shales at the Florissant Quarry. This commercial operations provides all the tool needed to recover the delicate plant and insect fossils from the Florissant Formation. All fossils found can be kept by the collector.

This is what the shale piles and the site look like. You never want to walk ON the shale piles because you could damage any fossils inside, always walk around them to pick up pieces.

On a hot summer day like this one was make sure you have water to drink.

Jack proudly displays his box of fossils. There is nothing quite so exciting as collecting fossils in the field. This field trip was done in partial fulfillment of earning a merit badge under the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies.

The nice people who work at the quarry will show you how to carefully break the shale apart. They will give you all the tools you need. I’m not allowed to use a razor blade, so I used a metal tool like a scraper to get in between shale layers and a paint brush to clean off samples. When I took a bag of shale home to share with my friends we soaked the shale in water and then it broke apart very easily.

Note: Jack is among the youngest of our pebble pups. He is in kindergarten. He is a prolific writer and dictates his stories to his mother so that the Colorado Springs and other rock clubs can publish his stories.

May Merit Badge Leadership

2011-04-21T11:15:00.000-07:00

Learning to lead is an important skill that will benefit you far beyond this hobby of rockhounding. As you learn from your youth leader, I hope you will be inspired to take the initiative to become a leader yourself. As you develop and deepen your knowledge and skill gained through Future Rockhounds of America activities, assist in teaching your fellow youth members and in helping your youth leader to decide which activities to pursue with the group.

A junior member helping two pebble pups.

To earn your leadership badge, you must complete three of the following activities:

Activity 1. Become a leader within your rock club's youth group and help decide what topics and activities your group will do this year and next year.

Activity 2. Organize a group display, take charge of organizing a group pebble pup display at your club show or at another venue.

Activity 3: Lead a show-and-tell session or presentation. Lead a group show-and-tell session, presentation, or symposium to adult members of your club or to the group of pebble pups.

Activity 4. Plan and lead a field trip

Activity 5: Manage a youth activity booth at a local gem show. Either on your own or working with adult members of your club, help to decide on activities in a kids' activity both at your local gem show, and then help to run the booth during the show.

Activity 6: Oversee a newsletter column for a year in your club's newsletter.

Activity 7: Become a mentor to younger or less experienced members of your club, sharing your knowledge and experience with them in a specific project, such as how to build a collection.

Adult leader discussing how pebble pups should prepare a collection.

Learning about dinosaurs

Adult leader telling juniors and pebble pups how to work a diamond saw to cut geodes

April Merit Badge: Field Trips

2011-04-21T10:35:00.000-07:00

The ultimate hands-on activity is a field trip. Little can replace the thrill of discovering a precious gemstone or a fossil first-hand. Also, a lapidary project has a lot more personal value and meaning if you collected the material yourself. But before you start down the road, you need to know the laws of your state and rules governing proper behavior for collectors and respecting private property. You also need to consider what you'll be collecting and how you'll collect it and then make plans to gather together the proper equipment.

Pebble Pup collecting fossil insects and plants at the Florissant Fossil Quarry

To earn your field trip merit badge, you must complete three of the following activities:

Activity 1: Trip etiquette. Learn and demonstrate the knowledge of the AFMS Code of Ethics (Google this).

Activity 2: Field trip planning. Choose a locality for a field trip from a guidebook for from suggestions by adult members in your club. Draw a map and directions to your site. List what you expect to find, then list the tools and supplies you'll need to collect and transport your finds home.

Activity 3: Going on a filed trip. (required to earn this badge): take a filed trip to a collecting locality. Be sure to follow proper field trip etiquette during the trip, and have fun. The club will soon post all field trip opportunities. There will be a Junior/Pebble Pup field trip on June 11. Look at the previous post.

Activity 4: Record keeping. start And maintain a "field journal" of what you did and what you found during your field trips in a composition of spiral-bound notebook, three-ring binder, or other record book or on the computer. Take notes while in the field and later write up a formal report including observations about the locality and specimens. Pinpoint where you found your rocks, minerals, or fossils, so that others could locate the spot. If you have a camera, illustrate your field journal with photos, or provide drawing that may prove useful to others wishing to visit the site.

Activity 5: The indoor field trip. Organize a field trip to a college geology department or to a museum. The Denver Museum of Nature and Science is a good place to visit, so is the museum at the Colorado School of Mines. They have a specimen of Veatchite.

A field trip leader is assisting pebble pups with questions

A field trip leader comes well prepared. It is good to have knee pads if you will be searching on the ground for specimens

A group of Junior and Pebble Pup members exploring the landscape for peridot

Pebble Pup searching for gems

Pebble Pup collecting peridot

PEBBLE PUP / JUNIOR FIELDTRIP

2011-04-06T21:23:00.000-07:00

JUNE 18, 2011

The trip to Leadville was a great success. We had a relatively large group and everyone found really nice pyrite specimens. The best place to look was on the gray areas of the old mine dump.

Directions: After driving three hours to Leadville, Hwy 24 will become Harrison Street.

Trip Meter

0.0 Intersection of Harrison and 5th street. Turn right (EAST) on 5th street and go 1.7 miles

1.7 Turn right on nearly invisible road. If I get there first I’ll put up a small sign. GPS N390 14.872’, W1060 15.673’

1.9 Park! GPS N390 14.806’, W1060 15.715’ This is the spot

Spessartine Garnet and Smoky Quartz: An Interesting Mineral Combination By Patrick Glover

2011-03-12T09:55:00.000-08:00

The smoky quartz and spessartine garnet sample shown in figure 1 is about the size of your palm. The spessartine garnet is reddish-brown in color. The smoky quartz is a translucent crystal that ranges from a brown at the bottom of the crystal to black at the tip, and seems to sprout out of the ground mass of the specimen. This sample comes from the Wushan Spessartine mine in Tongbei, Yuxiao Co., Zhangzhou Prefecture, Fujian Province China. The Mine is in the southeastern edge of China (source: "Wushan spessartine mine" ).

Figure 1. Smoky quartz and spessartine garnet crystals.Both spessartine and smoky quartz are considered semi-precious gemstones. Note the striated faces on the spessartine crystal. The image is 2.5 cm across. Photomicrograph © November, 2010 by Patrick Glover.

Spessartine garnet (magnesium aluminum silica) is a semi-precious gemstone (in this specimen it is translucent) and is found primarily in places such as Germany, Sri Lanka, China, and Brazil (source: The mineral and gemstone kingdom: spessartine). It was discovered in 1832. On the Mohs scale, spessartine has a hardness of 6.5-7.5. Spessartine has a specific gravity of 4.15 (Pellet, 1992). Spessartine is formed in manganese-rich metamorphic environments.

Smoky quartz (silica dioxide) forms in a variety of mineral environments and is found worldwide in places such as China, England, Scotland, and the United States (source: The mineral and gemstone kingdom: quartz). Smoky quartz is more common than spessartine, and was discovered in 300 BC. It has a hardness of 7 on the Mohs hardness scale and has a specific gravity of 2.65 (Pellet, 1992).

Both minerals are valuable as beads and talismans. The Egyptians made spessartine into beads and sold them as gems. The Scottish once believed that smoky quartz would heal the body (source: Folklore, legend, and healing properties).

The study specimen in this paper is one of the few samples imported from the southern edge of China. Other minerals imported from this area of China are helvite and topaz. This interesting combination of spessartine and smoky quartz crystals makes an attractive addition to a mineral collection.

References Cited:

Folklore, legend and healing properties. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.smokyquartzjewelry.com/

Pellett, Chris. (1999). Smithsonian handbooks: rocks and minerals. New York: DK Publishing.

The mineral and gemstone kingdom. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.minerals.net/mineral/spessartine.aspx

The mineral and gemstone kingdom: quartz. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.minerals.net/mineral/quartz.aspx

The mineral and gemstone kingdom: spessartine. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.minerals.net/mineral/spessartine.aspx

Wushan spessartine mine. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.mindat.org/loc-21240.html

Note: This article was written by Patrick Glover, a Junior (Pebble Pup) member for the Lake George Gem and Mineral Club. A modified APA reference style was used. © 2011, Patrick Glover. This article may be reprinted as long as author and home club is given credit.

March 2011 Merit Badge Project: Communication

2011-02-27T07:42:00.000-08:00

Part of enjoying a hobby is sharing it with others. They say you don't truly know something until you are able to teach it to another. Learning to communicate effectively is an important skill. If you go on to become a geologist or paleontologist, you'll discover the science isn't complete until your findings are written up and shared with colleagues, either in a public address or in a journal articles or a book. You'll find lifelong benefit to learning the basics of effective communication, both within the hobby and beyond.

Activity 1. Oral report.
Give a talk to your club or to your class at school about a trip you took, a project you did, a special rock or fossil you've collected, etc. In preparing your presentation consider the key questions that all reporters ask: "who, what, where, when, how, and why?

Activity 2. Written report or newsletter article.
Write a 250-500 word article for your club newsletter. Follow the news reporter's questions of who, what, where, when, how, and why.

Activity 3. Bulletin board display.
Prepare a bulletin board display for your annual show, a library, or your school on rocks, fossils, minerals, or the lapidary arts. Use pictures to convey most of your information, with writing kept to a minimum, mostly in the form of banners and headlines.

Activity 4. Corresponding with experts.
A great way to learn is by corresponding with experts who have made a career out of gemology, paleontology, or geology. These people are usually very busy, so you should briefly tell them who you are and what you're interested in. Then ask something very specific you'd like to know about their work. Share their answers with your fellow club members at your next meeting or on a report for your club newsletter.

Activity 5.Writing a field trip guide.
Write a guide to your favorite collecting locality. Provide a brief overview of what's to be found; how to get to the site, with written directions and a map; and the tools you'll need to dig for them with.

February 2011 Merit Badge Project: Field Trips

2011-02-27T07:39:00.000-08:00

The ultimate hand-on activity is a field trip. Little can replace the thrill of discovering a precious gemstone or a fossil first-hand. Also, a lapidary project has a lot more personal value and meaning if you collected the rough material yourself. But before you start down the road looking, you need to know the laws of your state and rules governing proper behavior for collectors and respecting private property. You also need to consider what you'll be collecting and how you'll collect it and then make and gather together the proper equipment.

Activity 1. Field trip etiquette and AFMS code of ethics.
Learn to demonstrate knowledge of the AFMS Code of Ethics (required to earn this badge). Make a permission release form. Demonstrate field trip etiquette on your next t rip. If the trip was on private land, did you fist gain permission? Did yo provide the owner with a release form? Did you fill in any holes you made?

Activity 2. Field trip planning.
Choose a locality for a field trip from a guidebook or from suggestions by adult members in your club. Draw a map and directions to your site. List what you expect to find, then list the tools and supplies you'll need to collect and transport your finds home.

Activity 3. Taking a filed trip (required to earn this badge).
Take a field trip to a collecting locality. Be sure to follow proper field trip etiquette during the trip. Have fun.

Activity 4. Record keeping.
Stat and maintain a "field journal" of what you did and what you found during your filed trips in a composition or spiral-bound notebook, three-ring binder, or other record book or on the computer. Take notes while in the field and later write up a formal report, including observations about the locality and specimens. Pinpoint where you found your rocks, minerals, or fossils, so that others could locate the spot.

Activity 5. The indoor filed trip.
Organize a filed trip to a college geology department or to a museum, calling in advance to arrange a tour not just of exhibitions on public display, but the treasures behind the scenes.

January 2011 Merit Badge Project: Showmanship

2011-02-27T07:11:00.000-08:00

A fun part of collecting is sharing what you have found. When displaying at a local gem show, you not only get to "show off" you own collections, but also to learn from others, getting advice, sharing tips, and making new friends. Before you enter an exhibit into a show, county fair, library, or elsewhere, you should learn the rules of effective showmanship.

Activity 1. Techniques for effective displays.
Learn the techniques of assembling an effective display, such as balance, color, coordination, labeling, and lighting. List them from memory.

Activity 2. Holding a workshop on display ideas.
Hold a workshop with club members to discuss display ideas. Have a display case at hand and see what happens when you use various types of materials as background liners (light versus dark materials; plain versus patterned cloth; etc. What happens when you vary the lighting or use risers or stands to raise display specimens.

Activity 3. Observing and evaluating displays.
Either alone or with a group, visit a museum with rock displays or gem show with exhibits. Carefully observe the displays, taking note of what catches your eye as being effective or not so effective. Make a checklist to techniques for effective displays and judge the displays you see against the checklist. Then hold a discussion about what works and what doesn't in a display. How could the displays you saw be improved?

Activity 4. Making your own public display.
Gather together the best of your rock, mineral, or fossil collection or your lapidary artwork and prepare a display for public exhibit. Good settings for displays include your school, county fairs, libraries, a local museum, a rock club show, or a science fair. Such a display might be done individually or with a group. If done as a group, your club might approach a public library about doing a display for a month. Libraries like to do this, and they often use it as an opportunity to highlight their books on that particular topic.

Activity 5. Entering competition.
Enter into competitive display at your regional show, at a county fair, or elsewhere. Competitions usually have very specific sets of rules or guidelines that all entrants must follow.

Five tips for effective displays
1. Use neutral liners to highlight, not detract from specimens. Display cases look best when lined with cloth wrapped tightly around sheets of cardboard or plywood cut to fit snugly along the case sides and bottom. Two rules govern the choice of cloth. First, you want the viewer's eye to focus on your specimens, not the background; choose a cloth that's neutral in appearance. Avoid patters (spots, checkers, paisley, stripes) and avoid cloth that's glossy and reflects light or that's garish in color. Plain liner, canvas, or burlap in neutral color usually works best. Second, choose a color that will highlight your specimens. Dark specimens can get lost against a dark liner; instead, use pastel shades of light blue, tan, eggshell, white, etc. If displaying light-colored specimens, a dark liner (black, navy blue, dark olive green) may be more appropriate.
2. Use balance (in size of specimens, colors, and arrangement) to guide the viewer's eye across a display in an aesthetically pleasing way. Choose specimens that compliment one another in size and shape and arrange them symmetrically around a center. A large specimen shoved to the side of a case can make a display looked lopsided. However, a single large piece place in the center and surrounded by smaller pieces can provide a pleasing effect. If using risers, place larger specimens toward the bottom of the case and smaller ones toward the top to lend a sense of "gravity" to the display. If displaying colorful minerals, arrange the colors in a way that provided interest to the viewer; for instance, alternate dark and light colored minerals.
3. Use neat, clear labeling that's both precise and concise and large enough to read. If possible, you should use labels that are typed in large, bold print that is easily read from a distance, and labels should be uniform in size.
4. Use lighting that's neither too bright nor too dim and shines evenly across a case. Light should fall evenly throughout the case, with not round spotlights or shadows.
5. Finally, consider using a theme or story to tie a display together.

Crystal Growing Activity

2010-12-24T09:16:00.000-08:00

Jacob Murphy
Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society Pebble Pups

Some minerals grow into crystals in water solutions. This process can be observed using readily available materials, such as sugar, salt, alum, and Epsom salts dissolved into a “saturated solution” in boiling hot water. A saturated solution contains the maximum amount of salt that will dissolve in a given amount of hot water. Here are the results of my work.

Specimen 1

Specimen 2

Specimen 3

Specimen 4

Guest Pebble Pup Blog: Ted Reeves

2010-12-12T15:35:00.000-08:00

This paper is about three archaeological artifacts found in Bijou Basin in El Paso County, Colorado and how Native Americans used them. The artifacts are tools and include a hand held chopper, a squaw's knife, and a regular Indian's knife. The three Bijou Basin stone artifacts were made out of different kinds of petrified wood.

There were many tribes of Native Americans who lived in El Paso County at different times. Native Americans who lived there mostly hunted. The Apaches were the first known Native Americans to live in that particular area, from about 1540 to 1700. A few years later the Comanches lived near Bijou Basin from 1727 to 1800. Next the Arapahoes and the Cheyennes came. They lived there from 1820 to 1846 (Hughes, 1977).

These tools are common. It is hard to determine which group of Native Americans used these tools because there were no projectile points found with them. Projectile points are more distinct and easier to date. The way the projectile point was carved would determine which Native American tribe made these artifacts. Each Native American tribe has different types of projectile points (Taylor, 2010).

With close examination, you will be able to tell what the Bijou Basin artifacts were used for. One of the few ways to tell what the tools were used for is to use a high-powered microscope to look for the wear and what type of damage is on the end.

Figure 1. This hand-held chopper, found at the Bijou Basin, appears to be fashioned from petrified palm wood. The palm grain is evident From the John Harrington collection. Photo by S. Veatch © 2010.

Chemical analysis could also tell you what the tools were used for (Kent, 2010). Shape also helps determine use of the tool. The Bijou Basin tools were used mostly to cut parts of the animals they hunted, such as bison, but they could have been used to cut wood. The hand held chopper (figure 1) could have been used for cutting bone. The chopper could also be used to mash roots for stew. The “squaw's knife” (figure 2) was small, but it could scrape the meat off the bone. The Indian knife (figure 3) is like our modern meat knife.

Figure 2. This artifact was used by female Indians to process bison and other game. The artifact is known as a “squaw’s knife.” It is made from petrified wood, and is from the Bijou Basin. From the John Harrington collection. Photo by S. Veatch © 2010.

Figure 3. A beautiful example of a knife used by the early occupants of Bijou Basin in eastern El Paso County. The knife is made from petrified wood. From the John Harrington collection. Photo by S. Veatch © 2010.

These tools were made of petrified wood, or fossilized wood. There are many stages in how petrified wood is formed. The tree needs to be covered by sediment. Once the wood is covered by sediment, minerals start taking over the cell structures. It helps turn the wood into petrified wood when the wood and minerals are in some type of liquid. After thousands of years, when the minerals have completely taken over the cell structures, the wood becomes petrified.

Many conditions have to be met to form petrified wood. The first condition is if the plant has all the right cells. Additional conditions are temperature, right type of minerals, how fast and how long the process takes, and how the wood is encased. These conditions tell how well the wood will be preserved (Daniels, 1998).

Many different Native Americans used these types of tools. These tools were commonly made out of petrified wood. Native Americans liked petrified wood because it was hard and that made it easier to cut, scrape, and chop. The Bijou Basin artifacts represent not only a time when native people hunted and camped here, but provide a connection to how these people lived.

References Cited:

Daniels, Frank J. 1998. Petrified Wood: The World of Fossilized Wood, Cones, Ferns, and Cycads. Grand Junction, Colorado: Western Colorado Publishing Company, 170 pp.

Hughes, J. Donald. 1977. American Indians in Colorado. Boulder, Colorado: Pruett Publishing Co., 143 pp.

Kent, Dr. Jonathan. 2010. Personal communication by email. Professor of Anthropology, Metropolitan State College of Denver.

Taylor, Jeb. 2010. Personal communication at Stone Age Fair, Loveland, Colorado. Author of Projectile Points of the High Plains. Jeb Taylor Artifacts Inc., 455 pp.

Author Bio: Ted Reeves is a 10 year old student in 5th grade at Immanuel Lutheran School in Colorado. Collecting fossils is one of his favorite hobbies. He started in 2006 when he found an Ice Age mammal bone in his backyard. Other hobbies include basketball, piano, and Lego building.

Notice of First Pebble Pup/Junior Field trip for 2011

2010-12-11T20:32:00.000-08:00

Family Exploration Day – Geology

Date: 08-Jan-2011

Western Museum of Mining and Industry

225 North Gate Blvd. Colorado Springs, CO 80921
Directions: I-25 to Exit 156A, Opposite the North

Entrance to the United States Air Force Academy.

10:00 a.m.- 3:00 p.m.

The WMMI invites you to its Family Exploration Day on geology. Among the activities, learn about Ice Age fossils of mammoths and prehistoric pollen from a Florissant Fossil Beds ,participate in "building" a mammoth and learn how to identify mammoth teeth and Ice Age plant pollen. There will also be rock and mining activities and you will have a chance to see dirt that is as close it dirt from Mars could possibly be. Have a rock or mineral that needs identifying? Want to learn how to gold pan? Want to have lots of fun?

come to this. Steven Veatch will spend the morning working with the Pebble Pups and Juniors, starting at 10 am and ending around noon. Pebble Pups and Juniors are encouraged to bring their lunch and parents. After lunch the pups and juniors are free to explore the museum, help Steven Veatch meet the general public until 3 pm, or head home. Members of the Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society will be on hand to perform rock and mineral identification. Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society Pebble Pups may attend for free. To reserve your spot, call 719-488-0880 or e-mail rsvp@wmmi.org. Spaces are filling up FAST. Call today. Note: there will be Pebble Pup Groups from the Denver area clubs and Internet / distance students coming to see each other.

Sand Crystals

2010-11-25T21:22:00.000-08:00

Large quantities of sand calcite crystals have been found at the Snake Butte locality in South Dakota. Snake Butte is situated on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation approximately 23 miles (35 km) south of the town of Interior, South. Dakota, about 80 miles (130 km) east of Rapid City. Generally, the collecting method is to simply dig the sand crystals out of loose sand.

Sand calcite crystals from South Dakota. Jo Beckwith specimen, S.W. Veatch photo.

These interesting specimens are thought to have been formed by the action of ground water or by spring deposition and are composed of calcite (CaCO3) and coarse wind-blown sand from an ancient dune deposit field. The absence of mud and silt and the well-rounded sand grains, along with wind-etched surfaces, indicates dune origin. The crystals are composed of about 37 % calcite and the rest is mainly sand inclusions. The sand is composed of quartz, orthoclase, microcline, albite, muscovite, biotite, hornblende, augite, tourmaline, zircon, garnet, staurolite, and magnetite (Wanless, 1922). Additionally, volcanic ash, fragments of volcanic glass, and schist can be found found. Some of the minerals present in the sand are from Precambrian pegmatites (tourmaline) and schists (garnet, staurolite, and schist fragments) of the Black Hills (Wanless, 1922).

The process forming these sand calcite crystals is likely a fluctuating water source that floods the unconsolidated sand on an annual basis. That water comes from a source that provides calcium carbonate in solution. This mechanism could be as simple as groundwater, natural springs, or a combination of snowmelt and/or spring rains flowing on and through a limestone that then flows into the unconsolidated sand exposure. This process fills the pore space within the sand completely with water that is close to being saturated with calcium carbonate, having dissolved it at a relatively low temperature (taking advantage of the carbonates inverse solubility with respect to heat).

Then, as summer comes, solar energy heats the pore water while also causing some evaporation. Concentration of calcium carbonate follows and the pore water becomes super saturated. The surface tension of water would hold pores full of solution in some areas instead of allowing a partial emptying of pores. Also the permeability factor is an important part of the mechanism of sand calcite crystal formation. High permeability would allow the pore water to easily flow through an unconsolidated and very loosely compacted sand. Once the well-sorted sand is saturated with water, subsequent evaporation will—at one point—set off precipitation.

Since there are many nucleation sites available around the sand grains, crystallization may proceed rapidly, and as it proceeds it will do so with many growths in parallel orientations. With calcite there are several chances of forming orientations that will lead to a single crystal. When chance creates a different orientation an intergrowth results, and through time—as the crystals grow outward—those orientations really begin to come into play so that intergrowths of interlocked crystals occur. The process stops for each crystal group when the water pockets run out. Then the process can begin again next year. This is likely a rapid process—hours rather than days, or at maximum a few days.

Today the Snake Butte calcite sand crystal locality in South Dakota is a National Natural Landmark and is managed by the Oglala Sioux Parks and Recreation Authority.

View of Snake Butte, a National Natural Landmark designated in 1967. National Park Service Photo.

References cited:

Wanless, H.R., 1922. Notes On Sand Calcite From South Dakota, American Mineralogist, v. 7, p. 83-86.

December 2010 lesson

2010-11-21T19:41:00.001-08:00

Coelophysis, a bipedal dinosaur that was generally 6 to 10 feet (1.8 to 3 meters) long, was among the best known of all late Triassic theropods (Colbert, 1989). The Triassic world, beginning about 230 million years ago, marked the beginning of the Age of Dinosaurs and was very different than today. The continents of the Triassic Earth were joined together into one huge continent called Pangaea. The central region of this enormous landmass was a vast and inhospitable desert with a dry and harsh climate. Coelophysis inhabited this super continent during very uninviting times.

The death curve pose of this Coelophysis is caused by body tissues and neck tendons stiffening and shortening. This post-mortem action bends the head back. Note the sharp-clawed fingers used to grab small prey. Image © by S. Veatch, May, 2006

These slightly built predatory dinosaurs, first named by the famous paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope, had long jaws with sharp and serrated teeth (Cope, 1889). Coelophysis was a quick and agile dinosaur that hunted prey in packs, bringing other animals down with the fearsome claws of their three-fingered hands (Paul, 1989). They held their long tails high above their backs for balance.

Many hypotheses about Coelophysis behavior are based on interpretations of the remarkable accumulation of hundreds of well-preserved skeletons found at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico. George Whitaker discovered skeletons of Coelophysis bauri at Ghost Ranch in the summer of 1947, approximately 38 miles northwest of the town of Española, New Mexico (Colbert, 1995).

The Whittaker quarry preserves the full range of growth of both genders of Coelophysis—from juveniles to fully grown adults. When juvenile Coelophysis bones were found in the rib cage of a large Coelophysis, it was thought that Coelophysis was cannibalistic (Colbert, 1995). Why so many Coelophysis died at once at the Ghost Ranch location is a puzzle—predators typically do not congregate in the high density seen at Ghost Ranch unless there is an exceptionally rich food source. There is nothing to suggest there was such a prey concentration at the Ghost Ranch locality. The Coelophysis skeletons at the Whittaker quarry are well-preserved (about 25% are articulated or complete) and show no signs of scavenging. This is consistent with the leading hypothesis that these animals were killed by a flood, washed into a low spot or pond, and were then quickly buried (Colbert, 1995).

New discoveries of Coelophysis fossils are continuing to be made at Ghost Ranch. Each new discovery of these fossils yields more information about these remarkable dinosaurs.

References Cited:

Colbert, E. H., 1989, The Triassic Dinosaur Coelophysis: Museum of Northern Arizona Bulletin 57, 160 p.

Colbert, E.H., 1995, The Little Dinosaurs of Ghost Ranch: Columbia University Press, New York, 247 pp.

Cope, E. D., 1889, On a New Genus of Triassic Dinosauria: American Naturalist xxiii; 626.

Paul, G. S., 1988, Predatory Dinosaurs: New York Academy of Sciences, 464 p

December 2010 Merit Badge Project: Collecting

2010-11-21T19:41:00.000-08:00

Young people love to collect, and most rocks hounds are pack rats at heart. We like nothing better than to assemble an assortment of rocks and minerals found on our journeys, traded with fellow collectors, or purchased at gem shows and rock shops. A proper collection however, is more than abunch of rocks and/or fossils thrown into a box. The value of a collection lies in its "curation," or in the information included with your specimens: what it is, where it came from, who collected it, and other unique information. The collection must also be properly organized and stored so individual specimens can be cared for and retrieved easily. Curating your treasurers provides an opportunity to learn about the specimens you have collected while improving both the scientific and economic value of your collection.

To earn your merit badge, complete activities 1-3; then do either 4 or 5.

Activity 1. Building a collection. Build a rock, mineral, and fossil collection with at least 10 to 20 specimens. A collection can focus on just one sort of of thing (a collection of minerals, a collection of fossils), or it can be a mixture of all these things. Some people get very specialized with theor collections, collecting for instance, a different kind of shark teeth ,or different forms of quartz. Ultimately, a collection reflects the interest of the collector.

Activity 2. Cataloging and labeling your collection. Take care to curate your collection. Number your specimens and, for each one, include a label and keep a logbook or catalog with key information. I use an Excel spreadsheet (I will email you a blank collection workbook--one page I use for minerlas, another page for fossils, and another page for rocks, just let me know). For rocks and minerals, this includes what it is and where it came from. For fossils, you should include both those facts as well as information about the age of the fossil and the rock formation.

Activity 3. Store your collection. Each specimen should be in its own small box. The small boxes might then be kept in trays, shoes boxes, cigar boxes, shallow shelves, soda flats, or whatever works best for you and the space you have to store your collection. Ihave found many interesting boxes, jewlery boxes, and small curio cabinets at the Goodwill and Salvation army stores.

Activity 4. Displaying your collection. Prepare a display to exhibit to your fellow pebble pups at a meeting or to show the public in a club show. The pebble pups will be asked to put their collection in a case at the CSMS show in 2011. Pups can create drawings to put in the case for additional interest. I will be encouraging the pebble pups and junior members to participate in the CSMS show. Pebble Pups are required to use egg cartons for their collections. The egg cartons can be decorated. I have some very interesting examples of how some pups decorated their egg cases. I will be happy to email a copy of egg case decorations---just let me know via email. Now, as for the juniors, we will decorate a case together. The juniors will provide a specimen. One of the juniors who has a PC and printer will make the labels. We will also need to decorate the interior of the case. Some of the juniors will work on that. There is a possibility that we could enter the pebble pup egg cases and the junior specimens in the Denver Gem Show that happens mid-September, 2011.

Activity 5. Reporting about your collection. Give a presentation or write an article for your club newsletter about your collection. For instance, what do you like to collect and why? Do you have any special stories to tell about a couple of the specimens in your collection? If you have a mineral collection, what's your most valuable mineral and why? If you have a fossil collection, what's your oldest fossil or most interesting?

Additional resources:
USGS information of collecting and building a collection: http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/collect1/collectgip.html

November 2010 Merit Badge Project: Fossils

2010-10-03T10:14:00.000-07:00

Fossils represent a merger between the sciences of geology and biology. They are at the core of the science of paleontology, or the study of past life. To study fossils, you need to learn about different forms of life on earth, the history of that life, and the geological processes that preserve life's records. The following activities will assist you. Remember, you need to complete 3 of them to earn your fossil merit badge.

Activity 1. The geological time chart. Memorize the geological eras and periods and some key facts about each one. Then make a geological time line showing all the geological periods. Illustrate it with drawings of fossils and prehistoric plants and animals characteristic of each period.

Activity 2. Types of fossilization and making a fossil. Explain the different types of fossilization (e.g., carbonization, permineralization, molds and casts, etc.). Make a "fossil by making imprints of leaves, shells, or fossils in modeling clay.

Activity 3. Collecting fossils. Build a fossil collection of 10 to 20 specimens. Collections come in a variety of forms. Some collectors concentrate on a single sort of plant or animal (trilobites) and try to collect a wide range of species. Some concentrate on a single locality or local formation and build an array of all the plans and animals that locality has to offer (such collections sometimes prove particularly useful to scientists). Still others opt for diversity, trying to collect a little bit of everything (clams, brachiopods, corals, shark teeth, trilobites). Whichever form you choose, be sure to follow the basics of good curation, labeling each specimen and keeping a log book with key information (identification of fossil, where found, time period, name of rock formation if you know it).

Activity 4 , The forms of life. Demonstrate knowledge of the major groups of invertebrates vertebrates, and plants.

Activity 5. A fossil-collecting field trip. Lean and demonstrate ethics and rules of field trips for fossils, then head out on a fossil-collecting trip.

Activity 6. Your state fossil. Many states have an officially designated state fossil. Find out what Yuri state fossil is and write a report about it for our club newsletter OR talk about it at one of your club meetings.

Ask for supplementary materials for these activities: activity 1, activity 2, activity 4, activity 6.

The work on this merit bade is due by January 15, 2011.

October 2010 Lesson

2010-09-14T08:10:00.000-07:00

Earth Resources
Everything we have and use is either grown or mined. Even things that are grown use mineral resources from the earth in the form of fertilizers and pesticides (insect killers). Lets take a closer look.

How is your electricity created?

Coal
Oil
Gas
Nuclear
Renewables:
Hydropower

Wind
Solar
Geothermal

Things made of coal, oil, and gas:
Billiard balls
Bowling balls
Fertilizers
Disinfectants
Baking powder
Paint pigments

Tooth paste

Food preservatives

Batteries

Varnish

Perfumes

Plastics

Roofing

Laughing gas

Lipstick

Roofing

Medicines

Paving

Minerals and metals needed to make a light bulb:

Bulb: glass is made from silica, trona (soda ash), lime, coal, and salt.

Filament: tungsten. Filament may be a straight wire, a coil, or a coiled coil.

Lead-in wires to filament: copper and nickel to carry current to and from filament.

Gas: mixture of agron and nitrogen inside the bulb used to retard burning of the filament

Base: made of brass (copper and zinc) or aluminum.

What is in a sidewalk?

Sand and gravel for concrete.
Cement, the other part of concrete is made from shale, clay, quartz, gypsum, iron, alumina, manganese, and limestone.

Minerals in typical computers:

Monitor

Sulfur, hemmimorphite, zincite, smithsonite, franklenite, silver, pyragyrite, halite, bauxite,chalcopyrite, boronite, enargite, cuprite, malachite, azurite, chrysocolla, chalcocite, gold, othoclase, flourite, vesuvianite, lepidolite, dolomite, spinel, olivine, pyrope, biotite, talc, realgar, opriment, cobalite, tetrahedrite, monzanite, and others.

Plastic case, keyboard
Calcite, gypsum, apatite, aragonite, rutile, ilmenite, titanite, pyromorphite, and others.

Flat screen display monitors
Quartz, galena, cerussite, sulfur, hemminmoprhiite, zincite, smithsonite, silver, halite, bauxite, chalcopyrite, boronite, cuprite, malachite, azurite, gold, euxenite, pinel, olivine, biotite, talc, realgar, orpiment, asenopyrite, monzanite, and many others.

Printed circuit boards, computer chips
Quartz, chalcopyrite, boronite, enargite, cuprite, malachite, azuirite, chrsococolla, chalcocite, gold, silver, pyragyrite, cassiterite, bauxite, and others.

October 2010 Merit Badge Project: Earth Resources

2010-09-13T19:19:00.000-07:00

This merit badge project looks at the practical side of minerals, or how rocks and minerals are used in everyday life. We are surrounded by evidence of our mining heritage, form gypsum in our walls to brass knobs on doors and clay in our flowerpots and on the pages of gloss magazines. The following activities will help you to appreciate the role of mining and minerals play in day-to-day life.

Activity 2.2 Minerals in the home. Write a report about minerals in your home, or in a particular room in your home: your bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, living room, etc.

Activity 2.5 Field trip to a hardware store. Take a "field trip" to a local hardware store or home building supply store. List some of the things you see there and their source materials.

Activity 2.6: Careers in the earth sciences. Learn about careers in the earth sciences (mining, teaching, gemology, the jewelry business, paleontologist, museum work, etc.). Write a brief paper imaging yourself in such a career and some adventure you might undertake in that job. For instance, an oil geologist might be taking a boat ride to an off-shore oil platform. A paleontologist with a museum or university might be exploring for fossils in the Gobi Desert. A gemologist might be cutting the world's largest blue diamond. What would be an interesting job to you?

To earn your Earth Resources badge, you need to complete these activities.

Due date for ths merit badge is December 31, 2010

September 2010 Lesson: Macro Photography--Nature Magnified

2010-08-10T20:53:00.000-07:00

8 Steps to Close-up (Macro) Photography of Rocks, Gems, Minerals, and Fossils for Beginners
Learning to use your camera's macro feature will open up a whole new world in your photography. Also, macrophotos will give you something new--a very different perspective. Photos are also essential to a good newsletter article. Compact cameras can shoot remarkably good close-up photos depending on the quality of the camera. But, there are several things you need to be aware of in order to take good macro images.

1. Turn on the macro mode by pressing the flower icon (make sure the icon appears in your LCD viewfinder). This setting allows you to bring the camera lens closer to the subject.

2. Compose your shot and press your shutter button halfway down to lock in the exposure and focus. This may take a few seconds, and usually you will see a green light. Now depress your shutter button all the way down to record the shot. If you know how to use manual focus then set your camera on manual focus. Now focus on the part of the subject you want. If you are indoors, set your subject on a plain background. I use different colors of construction paper. If the specimen is light, put it on a dark piece of construction paper. If you are working with a light specimen you should put it on a dark piece of construction paper.

This light-colored sandstone was put on a piece of rich, black velvet. Black velvet is a great choice for objects that are light. A penny is included so that the viewer gets a sense of the size of the specimen.

3. Lighting is important. I like to take my outdoor macro photos on the porch. We have a nice table out on the porch that works just fine. If the sun is bright, you may have to go back indoors and use electric lights on little stands. Avoid incandescent lights, they can create a harsh light and give a strange hue to your images. In the winter, I take my pictures inside near the picture window, Light coming in from a cloudy day can work. You will just have to experiment. I try both ways, indoors using natural light, and then artificial lighting that I have.

I used outdoor lighting when I took this image of a trace fossil in Cretaceous Dakota Sandstone from the Fairplay area.

4. Use a tripod to limit camera shake, which becomes more of a problem the closer you get to the specimen. Getting a small, inexpensive tabletop tripod from WalMart is key. Until you buy a tripod, you can put your camera on a stack of books. Place your specimen on a stack of books across from the camera. Tilt the specimen up, put a piece of construction paper of the appropriate color behind it, and then another book behind the construction paper to keep the tilt steady.

This Eocene-age fossil spider was taken with a tripod. A ruler was "Xeroxed" and a paper scale was cut from the copied ruler. Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument specimen number 2971A. Photo: R. Wolf. Used with permission by the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument.

5. Always use your camera's self-timer. This limits camera shake and vibration when pressing the shutter button. The self-timer is a delayed shutter release that records the image after all vibrations have subsided and eliminates the problem of pressing the release which would cause a slight motion. Check out your manual to see how it works on your camera.. Once you press the button down to take a picture, do not touch or lean on the table. Just a slight vibration can ruin a close-up image. Here are some examples that two pebble pup groups worked on in order to write an article about ancient Egyptian beads made out of semi-precious gemstones. The following Egyptian artifact images were made through a microscope by Pikes Peak area pebble pups.

Photomicrograph of garnet Egyptian bead over 3,000 years old by Lake George Pebble Pup Patrick Glover.

The making of garnet beads is labor intensive. Garnets are a very hard material. Photomicrograph by Lake George Gem and Mineral Club pebble pup Auston Mammenga.

Cylindrical bead of lapis lazuli. Lapis lazuli, prized since antiquity for its blue color, is a contact metamorphic rock with variable composition and varying physical properties. Photomicrograph by Colo. Springs Mineralogical Society pebble pup Victoria Arnold.

This ancient copper bead was beaten into this shape by Egyptian craftsmen. Copper was for everyday use in ancient Egypt. Photomicrograph by Colo. Springs Mineralogical Society pebble pup Victor Gordillo.

Disk bead of carnelian. The yellow-orange color is from iron oxide impurities. Photomicrograph by Colo. Springs Mineralogical Society pebble pup Kyle Helmick.

6. Experiment with your flash. It is not always necessary to use your flash but, it can reduce or eliminate shadows—a real problem for macro photographers. Try shooting where bright light is available to fill the shadows. I take a few pictures without the flash, and then a few with the flash. It cost nothing to take a number of imiages until you get the right one.

7. Fill the frame. Get as close as you can to your subject.

8. Get comfortable and relax. Enjoy what you are doing! You are creating a whole new way to look at your mineral and fossil world. Be sure to take multiple shots, play with the lighting, move the subject around, and try different things. This will get your ultimate close up.

September 2010 Merit Badge Project: Rocks and Minerals

2010-08-10T18:13:00.000-07:00

To earn this badge, you should demonstrate how to identify common minerals and lean the basic rock types. Other activities involve learning about crystals and your state rock or mineral. This unit also helps you start building your own rock and mineral collection. To earn this badge you must complete 3 of the following activities:

Activity 1: Learning the characteristics of minerals.

Buy a book or pick one up at the library to learn about different minerals and their characteristics. Make a chart of common minerals and their characteristics in terms of things such as color, streak, cleavage, fracture, luster, hardness, crystal shape, and weight, or specific gravity. In your chart, list various common minerals down the first column, and then have separate columns to note characteristics of each mineral. Chesterman's National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Rocks and Minerals is a good rock and mineral book to start with. If you select this activity, contact me so that I can mail you supplementary materials.

Activity 2: Building a mineral collection.
Build a collection of 10 to 20 minerals. Some collectors focus on a single mineral, with specimens from around the world to show different forms. A quartz collection might include amethyst from Brazil, clear crystals from Arkansas, and smoky quartz from Pikes Peak. Other collectors concentrate on a local area and collect all the minerals that might be found in one quarry, city, county, or state. Still others opt for variety and collect a little bit of everything. Be sure to follow the basics of good curation: label each specimen and keep a catalog with key information about what it is and where it came from. If you are a distance student taking this program through the Internet, you will need to provide a digital image of your collection when it is done. For my collection's log book, I use an Excel spread sheet. If you would like to use something like this, let me know and I will email you one.

Activity 3: The tree rock types.
Describe the three rock types (igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic) and build a collection with samples of each type. If you are a distance student taking this program through the Internet, you will need to provide a digital image of your metamorphic rock collection when it is done. Optional: do a one-two page feature article on one of your metamorphic rocks. The artilce must include a digital image of your rock. The tree basic rock types are:

Igneous. Igneous rocks are formed by crystallization of magmas, either deep beneath the surface of the earth (granites) or extruded (lavas, obsidian, ash). Examples: granite, basalt, rhyolite, obsidian, pumicde, scoria, diorite, gabbro, andesite, tuff.
Sedimentary. Sedimentary rocks are formed by sediments (gravel, sand, muc, etc.) created by the eroding action of wind, water, or ice breaking down older rocks or by minerals precipitating out of water. Examples: mudstone, shale, sandstone, conglomerate, limestone, dolomite, gypsum, coal.
Metamorphic. Metamorphic rocks have been changed by heat and/or pressure. Examples: slate (formed from shale), schist, quartzite (formed from sandstone), marble (f0ormed from limestone), serpentine, gneiss.

Activity 4: Crystal shapes.
Draw crystal shapes and/or make crystal models with blocks of Styrofoam or with Styrofoam balls and dowels, with cardboard, etc. Some common crystal shapes are cubic, hexagonal, orthorhombic, monoclinic, triclinic, tetragonal, and trigonal. If you select this activity, contact me so that I can mail you supplementary materials.

Activity 5: Growing crystals.
Using a material like sugar, table salt, or Epsom salts, grow different forms of crystals. If you select this activity, contact me so that I can mail you supplementary materials.

Activity 6. State rocks, minerals, and gemstones.
Just as each state has its own flag, many have a state mineral or state rock. Find out what your state rock, mineral, or gemstone is and write a report about it for our club newsletter.

The due date for this merit badge is November 30, 2010