Hands-on projects are some of my favorite ways to encourage curiosity and learning with my students. Some students respond quickly and enthusiastically to hands-on projects and activities while other students are not as interested. Sometimes there is a window of opportunity for hands-on projects. Other times certain temperaments are more engaged in these projects versus other temperaments. Because we did our mineralogy, geology, and earth science units several times over the years, we have an assortment of lessons, projects, and hands-on activities. There was one year, where the majority of our lessons were exclusively hands-on projects, balanced by read-alouds from living books. Conversely, our most recent mineralogy main lesson block included primarily delivered lessons, reading from living books, and written work, which included illustrations in the main lesson notebook.

When doing our hands on activities and projects, I especially love utilizing premade kits. While some of these kits are no longer available, similar ones are available. And for the projects that we created on our own, is possible that the specific materials are no longer available, but definitely similar materials are available. One of my favorite kinds of books to include in a main lesson block, especially science or history, our project and activity books that include ideas for hands-on projects. In this case, the book Mountains and Volcanoes: Geography Facts and Experiments by Barbara Taylor, is an excellent example of a book that contains a rich collection of simple projects as well as relevant content. While this book is out of print, it is still available secondhand. However, finding books that are similar to it will provide ideas on how you can put together some hands-on activities for your mineralogy, geology, or earth science main lesson block.

Of all of our projects, the most enjoyable one was breaking open geodes. While this was less educational and more exciting, it’s still one that holds a special place in my children’s hearts, even years later. 

One note, the volcano projects, which include the acid, vinegar and the base, baking soda, are not technically geology projects. Those are chemistry projects. However, we did include them for entertainment purposes, but it should be noted that that chemical reaction is best served in a chemistry Lab during middle school.