Natural resources · sIM0PGv8h08 · 4:33
Sketchnote in the works
status page/video ID saved · analysis package pending
Unit 13 · Earth Science arc · 7th grade
The element
lottery.
Your phone holds about thirty elements, mined on five continents. Who got the copper, who got the cobalt? Nobody chose — geology drew that map long before anyone drew borders.
5 rules
6 manipulatives
12 flashcards
1 phone
~30 elements · five continents · zero of it chosen
The phenomenon · the teardown
One phone, five continents
Every part of your phone has a passport. Tap a component and see what it's made of — and where on Earth that came from.
tap a component — it has a passport
the teardown
Thirty elements, no volunteers
Nobody on the design team picked a country for these elements — the deposits exist where the geology put them, and the supply chain follows the rocks. Magma chambers concentrated the metals, ancient seas left the salts, rivers dropped the heavy grains. Tap a component to see its elements and their home mines.
Watch · Khan Academy
Resources, and the rocks they're made of
Manipulative · the five-rule club
Mineral is a title, not a vibe
To be a mineral, a substance needs all five: naturally occurring, inorganic, solid, definite chemical composition, crystal structure. Miss one and you're out of the club. Sort the applicants.
Pick an applicant, then stamp it.
Mineral ✓
all five rules pass
Not a mineral ✗
a rule was broken
0 / 8 stamped
Manipulative · the detective kit
Who scratches whom?
The Mohs scale ranks hardness 1–10: talc at 1, diamond at 10. A harder mineral scratches a softer one — never the reverse. Set the matchup, read the verdict.
diamond10
corundum9
topaz8
quartz7
steel file · feldspar6
apatite5
fluorite4
penny · calcite3
gypsum · fingernail2
talc1
quartz (7) scratches calcite (3). calcite can't return the favor.
The rest of the kit
Streak — the color of the powder on unglazed tile. More honest than the face color.
Luster — how it shines: metallic, glassy, dull.
Cleavage — splits cleanly along planes. Mica peels into pages; diamond has this weakness too.
The why · geology drew the map
Ores form where the process ran
Mineral deposits aren't sprinkled evenly — they're concentrated by specific geoscience processes in specific places (MS-ESS3-1). The map of resources is really a map of ancient events.
01
Magma chambers
Cooling melt sorts its elements — heavy metals sink and collect in layers. That's how you get rich copper and nickel bodies in very particular spots.
02
Hot water veins
Hydrothermal fluid dissolves metals deep down, then drops them in cracks as it cools. Gold, silver, and quartz veins ride these ancient plumbing systems.
03
Evaporating seas
Trap an ocean, let the sun take the water — the salts stay behind. Halite, gypsum, and lithium brines are evaporated sea, harvested.
04
River drops
Running water sorts by weight: light sand keeps moving, heavy grains drop. Placer deposits — that's why gold pans live in river bends.
Nonrenewable
Made over millions of years, spent in decades. Ores, fossil fuels — the bank doesn't refill on our schedule. This is most of what we mine.
Renewable
Nature refills it fast: sun, wind, flowing water, managed forests. Same physics, friendlier accounting.
Standard: MS-ESS3-1 — the uneven distributions of Earth's mineral, energy, and groundwater resources are the result of past and current geoscience processes (NGSS Lead States, 2013). DCI: ESS3.A Natural Resources. CCC: Cause and Effect — the process is the cause; the deposit is the effect.
Myth-busters · tap to flip
Unlearn these three things
Manipulative · Spaced repetition
Say it like a scientist
Twelve words. Flip the card, grade yourself honestly, and the deck schedules your next review — hard words come back sooner. Come back tomorrow and it remembers you. (It lives in your browser, no account.)
–due now
–locked in
–seen so far
flip the card, then grade yourself
Sketch · sketchnotes
Read the mineral evidence before the map
The exact page videos are identified. Printable sheets stay pending until transcript and analysis packages pass the sketchnote source gate.
Minerals and ores · x89JhH1FA7I · 6:26
Sketchnote in the works
status page/video ID saved · analysis package pending
Investigate · evidence first
Identify the sample, then name its cost
The page's mineral tests remain usable now; a print-first evidence record is queued after source review.
Investigation in the works
Use the existing page models now. The exact transcript package and classroom record are still pending.
in the worksExit ticket · 5 questions
Before you leave the assay office
No grade, no stakes — just proof the assay passed. Answer all five to earn the stamp.
question 1 of 5