External Links
Keep learning about geology after your visit to the Clarence R. Smith Mineral Museum!
Below you will find links to external websites containing educational content.
Please note that the Clarence R. Smith Mineral Museum is not affiliated with these online resources.
- Lesson Plans & Resources:
- Earth science lesson plans from The Science Spot
- Contact a USGS geologist
- Archive of EARTH magazine online articles
- Plate Motion Calculator
- List of U.S. state minerals, rocks, stones, and gemstones
- List of Mineral-related links
- Free Models to print and color for various items including: Earthquake, ocean crust, jetty, & more
- National Park Service – Educators page
- HHMI Biointeractive – teaching resources
- Groundwater.org – teaching resources
- Lesson plan about erosion and sediment transportation
- USGS publications
- Interactive Periodic Table
- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Lesson Plans
- The National Map
- Living with a volcano in your backyard – an educator’s guide with emphasis on Mount Rainier
- Modeling and Measuring Volcanic Eruptions
- Volcano Webquest
- Interactive Rock Cycle 1
- Interactive Rock Cycle 2
- Games & Activities:
- Simple Rock and Mineral Scratch test
- Evaporation from a String make your own stalagmites and stalactites
- Lava Layering: Making and Mapping a Volcano
- Quick and easy soil test
- Articles:
- Videos:
- Book:
- Old Rock (is not boring) – website also has activities to go along with the book
Or use the tabs below to explore links related to your favorite museum display:
If you liked our ore minerals display case, you may be interested in learning about minerals as natural resources! If you are in the Youngstown area, we recommend a visit to the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry & Labor (also known as the Steel Museum) to learn more about iron ore.
We also recommend learning more about the history of mining, types of mines, environmental impact of mining, types of minerals and rocks that are used in your everyday life, and renewable vs nonrenewable resources. Here are links to external websites to get you started:
- Lesson Plans & Resources
- Articles:
- Infographic:
- Websites:
- USGS National Minerals Information Center – data, statistics, yearly summaries, and publications about mined minerals
- Videos
- Minerals & Ores & The Extraction of Minerals
- Can Diamonds Made in a Lab Replace Natural Ones? (briefly explores diamond mining and conflicts)
- Acid Mine Drainage
If you liked our meteorite display case, you may be interested in the subject of planetary geology! If you are in the Youngstown area, we recommend a visit to the Ward Beecher Planetarium.
We also recommend learning more about meteorites, meteors, meteoroids, comets, asteroids, “rocky” planets, moons, lunar rocks, armalcolite, tektites, and impact craters. Here are links to external websites to get you started:
- Lesson Plans & Resources:
- Photo Gallery: Moon Rocks
- Games & Activities:
- Articles:
- Infographic: Comet, Asteroid, Meteoroid, Meteor, Meteorite
If you liked our fossil display cases, you may be interested in the subject of paleogeology!
We recommend learning more about how fossils form, how fossils are dated, mass extinctions, the law of superposition, and what we can learn from fossils. Here are links to external websites to get you started:
- Lesson Plans & Resources:
- Fossil Preparation from Field to Museum
- Fossilization – How Fossils Form
- Mass Extinction of Dinosaurs and More
- The Great Fossil Find
- American Geosciences Institute – Fossil Unit
- Weighing the Evidence for a Mass Extinction: On Land
- Weighing the Evidence for a Mass Extinction: In the Ocean
- Mohawk Guy and his Band of Neogene Planktic Foraminifer Friends
- Microfossils in Blake’s Nose
- Photo Gallery: Smithsonian Paleobiology Collection
- Games & Activities: Fossil Cookies
- Articles:
- 15 million-year-old whale skull found on banks of Potomac River
- 72 Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Tail Found In Mexico, Fossil May Belong To Hadrosaur
- Fight over dinosaur fossils comes down to what’s a mineral
- The biggest bug that ever lived
- Holes in fossil shells show effects of competition and evolution
- How the Burgess Shale changed our view of evolution
- Reconstructing a prehistoric environment based on fossil evidence
- Geologist Who Discovered “Lucy” Site, Dies at 86
If you liked our mineral display cases, you may be interested in the subject of mineralogy!
We recommend learning more about how/where minerals form, the difference between minerals and rocks, how geologists define crystals, the properties of minerals, and how scientists identify minerals. Here are links to external websites to get you started:
- Lesson Plans & Resources:
- Games & Activities:
- Articles:
- What are Minerals?
- From deep within Earth’s mantle, this never-before-seen mineral hitched a ride to the surface in a diamond
- Scientists create a mineral in the lab that captures carbon dioxide
- New mineral named in honor of ASU professor
- Why we should stop ignoring the life stories of minerals
- ‘Fool’s Gold’ actually contains a newly discovered type of real gold
- Which elements will disappear in the next 100 years
- Interview with a clay mineralogist
- Databases
- Mindat.org – “is the world’s largest open database of minerals, rocks, meteorites and the localities they come from”.
- Minerals.net – has photo galleries, Q&A, and other information.
- Webmineral.com is a mineral database with an element composition search box.
- Petrographic data files for several minerals – includes thin section photos
If you liked our Ohio minerals display case, you may be interested in learning more about the geology of Ohio!
We recommend learning more about the rocks/minerals/fossils that are commonly found in Ohio, how Lake Erie was formed, the age of the bedrock beneath your hometown, mining in Ohio, and places in Ohio you can visit to learn more. Here are links to external websites to get you started:
- Lesson Plans & Resources:
- Websites:
- Videos:
Explore geology in Ohio:
- Caves
- Seneca Caverns (Bellevue, Ohio)
- Perry’s Cave (South Bass Island, Ohio)
- Ohio Caverns (West Liberty, Ohio)
- Parks
- Nelson-Kennedy Ledges State Park (Nelson Township, Ohio)
- Thompson Ledges (Thompson, Ohio)
- Hocking Hills Ohio
- Cuyahoga Valley National Park
- Museums
- The Cleveland Museum of Natural History (Cleveland, Ohio)
- Orton Geological Museum (Colombus, Ohio)
- Clubs
- Other
If you liked our gemstones and cabochons display cases, you may be interested in learning more about lapidary art!
We recommend learning more about which minerals make the best gemstones, faceting, birthstones, jewelry, mining, lab-grown gems, and gem names that differ from mineral names. Here are links to external websites to get you started:
- Articles:
If you liked our minerals of Brazil & Mexico display cases, you may be interested in learning more about the geology of other places!
We recommend learning more about the national parks, national natural landmarks, the world’s tallest mountains, mineral localities, geotourism, and collections from natural history museums around the world. Here are links to external websites to get you started:
- Articles:
- Museums:
- The Sterling Hill Mining Museum (New Jersey)
- Virtual Tour of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History
- Carnegie Museum of Natural History (Pittsburgh, PA)
- The Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art (Illinois)
- Rock/Mineral/Gem Shows:
If you liked our geology & medicine display case, you may be interested in learning more about the historical knowledge of and uses for minerals! If you are in the Youngstown area, we recommend a visit to the Melnick Medical Museum.
We also recommend learning more about famous gemstones, minerals used as pigments/makeup, rocks and minerals used as ancient tools and building materials, and the impact of local geology on indigenous people . Here are links to external websites to get you started:
- Articles:
- Roman-era mixers and millstones made with geology in mind
- Is an Aboriginal tale of an ancient volcano the oldest story ever told?
- Chemistry in the time of the Pharaohs
- The story of fluoridation
- Spinel history & lore – includes info about the Black Prince’s Ruby
- The Modoc War & Captain Jack’s Stronghold (a natural lava fortress)
- The history of the Hope Diamond
- Charles Darwin, a ‘rockhound’ aboard The Beagle
If you liked our fluorescent minerals display case, you may be interested in learning more about fluorescence!
We recommend learning more about the electromagnetic spectrum, longwave vs. shortwave UV rays, types of luminescence, other examples of fluorescence in nature, activators, and which types of minerals are likely to glow. Here are links to external websites to get you started: