PBL in Ore Microscopy course, ITC

Course overview

This course is mostly the practical course for students to get to know the minerals especially the ore mineral in both hand specimen and under microscope. Students will define the physical properties of the ore mineral by themselves using naked eyes and small tools to check. This lecture is covered of how to prepare samples to be able to check under reflected light microscope and also to identify the ore minerals under microscope through its optical properties. After the lectures, the ore samples are provided to the students that have divided into small group of around 3 students to prepare and observe under microscope. Finally they need to write the report of their work.

Participants in piloting 

This course is obligatory in the 3th year undergraduate program in the faculty of Geo‐resources and Geotechnical Engineering. This class is mostly the practical class so each class covered only about 15 students. The total students that have joint this class is 32 students.

Use of ALIEN services and tools

Before starting this class, students are already studied general geology and know some common minerals. At the beginning students are divided into small group with some tools such as hand lens, magnetic pen, scratch pen, streak plate in order to check the physical properties of the ore mineral provided. Then the lecture of optical properties of ore minerals is provided and follow by the instruction of how to use reflected light microscope. Next, ore samples taken from different place are provided to each group to prepare for polished section in order to be able to observe under microscope. After sample preparation, students are requiring to interpret those ore mineral under microscope and finally produce the report.

These photos show students working in group to observe the ore samples and check its physical properties and sample preparation in laboratory. Students are practicing hand‐on experiences that are real active learning.