MMSS 2008

Nano-Rocks and Mega Molecules

C.C. Little Building
Room 2520 (unless otherwise listed)

Session: June 29 - July 11, 2008

Sunday, 29-June    MMSS kickoff - East Hall 3pm

Monday, 30-June

9:00-10:00am            MMSS Orientation (1360 East Hall)

10:00-11:00am         Introduction to the Geo-mentors and geological sciences

11:00-12:00pm         Mineralogy Lab (Room 3526) – The mineralogy lab will familiarize students with mineral properties, such as hardness, habit, and magnetism.

12:00-1:30pm            Lunch

1:30-2:30pm              Mineralogy Lab (Room 3526) – Continue morning session

2:30-4:30pm              Rocks Lab (Room 2512) – A brief lecture about the rock cycle will precede a rock lab, where students will learn to identify significant features in rocks, such as grain size and composition variations.

Identifying minerals by their streak	Studying the crystal form of galena	Rock salt really tastes like salt
Learning how to identify minerals based on their hardness	Learning about mineral cleavage and habit	Tasting the halite
Writing with graphite is fun	Igneous rocks	Metamorphic rocks
Clastic sedimentary rocks	A closer look at igneous rocks	What a giant scoria
A nicely foliated gneiss	Comparing sandstone with sand	Learning where the color of igneous rock comes from
Rock Lab	Looking at a breccia	Cool depositional features
	Learning about depositional environements

Tuesday, 1-July

8:30-12:00pm            Trip to G.R. Eddy Geology Center, Chelsea, MI – Students will be given a tour of the Center’s Rock Walk and Bog Walk to observe some of glacial features of SE Michigan.

Eddy Rock Walk	Concretion	Bif
Standing on a metamorphic rock	Squatting by a basalt	Igneous rocks
Standing on a vesicular basalt	Nice ripple marks	Sitting on a concretion
Standing on a fossiliferous limestone	Listening to Mark the naturalist	Tillite
Learning about poison ivy	Crushing the invasive species	Thinking about invasive species
More thinking about invasive species	Hiking to the bog	Listening intently
Standing on the esker	Standing on the esker	Collecting bog water for testing
More bog water collection	One more sample of bog water	Jumping on the soft prebog soil is fun

12:00-1:30pm            Lunch+Learn

1:30-4:30pm              Geologic Time – Students will learn about geologic time, methods for age-dating rocks, and the difference between relative and absolute time.

Putting geologic time in order	Determining the order of events	The origin of the Earth
Walking back in time	When did all of these events occur??	Thinking about time scale
Comparing event times with other groups	Instructors taking a breather	Leaping back in time
Are we there yet??	The Earth has a very long history	Really how far apart did these events happen
Still measuring	Everyone is looking at something	Pointing back to the beginning
Picking up the pieces of geologic time		Geologic time - Devo for scale

Wednesday, 2-July

9:30-10:30am            Michigan Rocks and Minerals – Learn about important rocks and minerals from the Michigan area

10:30-11:30am         Michigan Geology – Students will learn the abbreviated geologic history of Michigan and some understanding of sedimentary processes that dominate the Michigan subsurface.

12:00-1:30pm            Lunch

1:30-4:30pm              Museum of Paleontology, U of M – Students will be led on a tour through the Ruthven Museum.

Thursday, 3-July

9:00-12:00pm            Water Quality – Students learn about water quality in the lab and lecture.

12:00-1:30pm            Lunch+Learn

1:30-4:30pm              Water Quality – Walk to the Huron River to examine the water quality in Ann Arbor.

Friday, 4-July

9:00-10:30am            Crystal Growth (Room 3526) – Students will learn about the 6 crystal systems in a lecture and then have the opportunity to grow their own crystals.

10:30-12:00pm         Optical Microscopy (Room 3530) – Students will be introduced to the optical microscope and how to identify minerals from thin sections.

12:00-1:30pm            Lunch

1:30-3:30pm              Quiz Bowl Round 1 – Students will compete for points by answering questions in a quiz bowl.

3:30-4:30pm              Close of week 1 – Overview of the past week and a preview of the week to come.

Monday, 7-July

9:00-9:45am              Space Scale – Students will be introduced to space scale to understand resolution and possible techniques used to analyze samples.

10:00-11:30am         Optical Microscopy (Room 3530) – Students will look at the crystals they made and have a chance to identify unknown minerals according to their crystal systems.

12:00-1:30pm            Lunch

1:30-3:00pm              SEM and AFM – In 45 minute rotations, students will learn the inner-workings of two advanced microscopy techniques.

3:00-4:30pm              Computational mineralogy (5501)– Udo Becker will give an interactive lecture introducing computational mineralogy techniques.

Tuesday, 8-July

8:15-12:00pm            Fossil Park, Sylvania, Ohio – Students will have an opportunity to search for fossils that are native to the area and even take a sample home.

12:00-1:30pm            College Admissions

2:00-4:30pm              American Freedom Gravel Pit, Freedom, MI—Students will learn the economic benefits of Michigan geology and learn to make geology field observations.

Wednesday, 9-July

8:00-12:00pm            Seneca Caverns, Bellevue, Ohio – Students will have a tour of one of the only fracture caves open to the public in the United States.

12:00-1:15pm            Lunch

1:15-4:00pm              Kelly’s Island, Lake Erie – Students will have a chance to see the world’s largest glacial grooves.

4:15-6:30pm             Drive back to Ann Arbor

Thursday, 10-July

9:00-10:00am            Global warming/Climate change – Students will learn about climate change and global warming through lecture.

10:00-12:00pm         Alternative energy (Room 2512) – Students will discuss and learn about alternative energy options and calculate their carbon footprint.

12:00-1:30pm            Lunch+Learn

1:30-4:30pm              Alternative energy – Students will watch The Inconvenient Truth and have a chance to ask Prof. Henry Pollock questions about the research behind the documentary.

Friday, 11-July

9:00-11:30am            Environmental Protection Agency tour

12:00-1:30pm            Lunch

1:30-3:00pm              Quiz Bowl Round 2 – Students will use the knowledge learned throughout the week to compete in a geology game show.

3:15-4:15pm              Wrap-up

Extra Activities

Students can earn points for their team by participating in the extra activities.

Mineral Identification – Students can test their mineral detective skills with the unknown mineral of the day.