Table of Minerals that place out for the public to pick up and look at. | Alex Allan | XFM News
The R.W. Hutchinson Geoscience Collaborative suite at Western held a public event on March fourth about economic rocks. The theme is about minerals that are used in our day-to-day appliances that we might not know about. “In order to have all of these high technologies we have nowadays, cell phones, laptops for example. We have to Mine”, Geoscience Collections Curator Alysha McNeil said.
A case of Meteorites Westerns research lab has collected. | Alex Allan | XFM News
Some rocks are on display at the table that you can pick up and take a closer look at. Others are in glass cases that are on display but they also had some being projected through a microscope to give an in-depth view of the minerals on a big screen. Families were more than welcome to the exhibit too with a table set up for kids that had fun activities to learn more about the rocks. “They’re mainly interested in looking at the pretty rocks, but it’s also good for our future to know what these appliances are made of ”, McNeil said.
Unfortunately, the event was held the next morning after the Winter storm on Friday. Not a lot of families were able to make it out and more than likely decided to stay at home because of being snowed in. Alysha mentioned that the activity for the day was for kids to match minerals to the firework colours. “The different-colored fireworks come from different elements and different minerals”, she said.
Spodumene is shown in the image here that is used for electronic devices. | Alex Allan | XFM News
The Tantalite mineral is one of McNeil’s favourites at the exhibit. She mentions that this was a mineral she researched to complete for her PhD from Western. “The reason why our smartphones are so thin nowadays is because of the mineral tantalate”, she said.
The Geoscience collaborative suite at Western holds a public open house one Saturday every month. They try to follow a theme for every month where adults and kids can learn more about minerals. “Next month is going to be on April fool’s day and we’ll display minerals that are one thing but look like something else, for example fool’s gold”, McNeil said.
HERE IS A TOUR OF THE EXHIBIT AT WESTERN:
