Rice Mineral Museum Extra Credit

Self-Guided Tour
DUE: 11:59 PM, Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Worth Up To: 20 Points

What You’ll Need to Take With You:

1) $7.00 Admission Fee Children under 5 are free, student (5-17) $5.00
2) This handout, pen or pencil, notebook for notes/sketch, and camera (camera is
optional).

What You’ll Need to Hand In:

Your answers, typed, and submitted to me in class or via e-mail by the deadline above
in either .doc or .pdf format. Any sketches or photos should be attached.

Location: 26385 NW Groveland Drive, Hillsboro, Oregon 97124

Directions: West of Portland, off of Highway 26 West. Take Exit 61 North. Take first turn
West onto Groveland Drive. Proceed approx. 1 mile (you will pass by Groveland Rd. on
your right) and turn right into museum driveway.

Museum Phone: 503.647.2418

Mineral Museum Web Site: http://www.ricenwmuseum.org/info.html

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Assignment:
1. Locate and observe the features and characteristics of the rocks (boulder size)
that are outside and nearby the admissions/gift shop.

Identify 1 sedimentary, 1 igneous, and 1 metamorphic rock. Be sure to include a

sketch or photo, and to label the characteristics or features that led you to
determine the type of rock (ig, met, or sed), and the name of the rock you chose.

2. What is a meteorite? How often to they hit, or land, on Earth? Was one ever
found in the Willamette Valley?

3. What causes minerals to be fluorescent? Name two fluorescent minerals you

looked at in lab/class.

4. Rhodochrosite questions – from video.

Where did the sample come from?

Describe the processes used to extract the sample.
What is its monetary value?

5. Answer the following questions using the rocks on the shelving unit in the video
room.

Identify and name 3 metamorphic rocks, and list them in order from low- to high-
grade metamorphism.

6. In the fossil room, pick you favorite fossil, and briefly describe the
paleoenvironment (i.e., ancient environment) in which it lived, and how long ago
it lived. Include a sketch or photo.

7. Briefly describe how petrified wood and thunder eggs are formed.

8. In the mineral room, locate the safe with gold samples and rhodochrosite sample.
Do they have the same luster?

9. In the mineral room, pick out a mineral you think is really cool. But, it has to be
one we haven’t seen in lab or class. Briefly describe the color, crystal shape,
cleavage, include it’s chemical formula.

10. What are zeolites? Are there any in Oregon? If so, where? Include a sketch or
photo, and briefly describe how they’re formed.

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