Earth Resources Shopping Assignment

Earth Resources Shopping Assignment

Learning Objectives:

• Identify products that use metal and nonmetal/industrial mineral resources.
• Become familiar with the geologic processes and geographic distribution of metal or nonmetal/industrial mineral.
• Conduct an analysis of products used in the home and/or workplace.

Part 1:

“Visit” a local home improvement store and/or hardware store (e.g., Home Depot, Lowes, Ace Hardware, etc.) to find a product that uses the metal, nonmetal and/or industrial mineral listed below as the major ingredient.  You do not need to purchase any products for this assignment.

Note: Due to COVID, you are not required to physically go to the store for this assignment.  Therefore, you can complete the entire assignment using the websites from the stores listed above.  

Part 2:

Conduct an analysis of the same metals and nonmetal/industrial minerals listed above used in your home and/or workplace. Basically find any products and/or building materials that uses the same metals and nonmetal/industrial minerals from Part 1 in your home and/or workplace.  You can repeat the products found in Part 1 if needed.

Part 3:

Complete a report using the following format:

1. Introduction
2. Product Analysis (Use information from Part 1)

A picture of the product must be included with a description of the following:

• information about the use of the product
• the geologic occurrence of the metal or nonmetal/industrial mineral (e.g., ore deposit mineral models)
• examples of major deposits (e.g., Bushveld, South Africa).

Cite your sources using MLA citation and format style (Links to an external site.).

1. Personal Uses (Use information from Part 2)
2. Conclusion

Part 4:

Submit report in required dropbox in pdf or word format.

List of Metals, Nonmetals, and Industrial Minerals

Abundant and Scarce Metal Resources Fe Al Mg Ti Zn Cu Pb Cr Ni

Nonmetals and Industrial Minerals N P K Gypsum Aggregate Dimension Stone

*A separate product is required for each metal, nonmetal and/or industrial mineral listed in the table.

Shopping Assignment Example

**Do not copy the example!  You report must be unique and your own work.

USGS Factsheets

• USGS Mineral Resources Out of the Ground into our daily lives
• USGS Minerals in our Environment