My sons are very fond of Minecraft. They love learning about different minerals as well as the whole creative aspect of the game. Micah has his own little rock collection and Leto can tell me the names of various types of rocks for hours.
One of our homeschooling co-ops took a field trip out to Franklin Mineral Museum. They had so many varieties of rocks on display. A tour guide told us about the history of the Franklin mine and how it was a very well known mining town in NJ (which is not a typical thing you’d think NJ would have). It carries some rare minerals that you can’t find anywhere else. It was known for having high zinc in this particular mine.
Under fluorescent lights, these minerals show some beautiful colors! We went into a room where they showed us this as an example (It was really cool and you can see examples of it on their website).
There was a recreation of what a typical mine shaft would look like. The children had fun walking through it and experiencing a more simplistic version while learning how dangerous the life of a miner was.
At the end, the students were allowed to go pick out some rocks and see if they picked out ones that had florescent minerals or not too. My sons did a great job choosing some.
The boys had a really nice time, even though Micah had been feeling ill. He ended the day with a smile and was glad we went. Of course they couldn’t wait to play Minecraft and do some mining after feeling inspired.
