A park needs stone steps that many shoes will rub every day. What use fits granite and the property that makes it a good resource?

Workers crush limestone before making concrete for a sidewalk. What use fits limestone and the property that makes it useful?

A town wants tan blocks for a low garden wall. What use fits sandstone and the property that makes it useful?

A factory needs a resource for making steel beams. What use fits iron ore and the property that makes it useful?

An electrician needs metal for wiring a school. What use fits copper ore and the property that makes it useful?

A glassmaker starts with sand rich in quartz. What use fits quartz and the property that makes it useful?

A power plant stores black rock to burn for heat. What use fits coal and the property that makes it useful?

A road crew spreads salt on an icy walkway. What use fits salt and the property that makes it useful?

A potter shapes wet clay into a bowl, then heats it. What use fits clay and the property that makes it useful?

A garden path needs a layer that lets rain drain away. What use fits gravel and the property that makes it useful?

A builder wants thin flat pieces for a roof. What use fits slate and the property that makes it useful?

A wallboard factory grinds a soft mineral into powder and mixes it with water. What use fits gypsum and the property that makes it useful?

Miners dig a reddish ore called hematite. What useful metal is usually taken from hematite?

A bright green mineral called malachite is mined and sent to a smelter. What useful metal is taken from malachite?

A lightweight drink can is made from aluminum. What ore resource usually supplies the aluminum?

A food can is made of steel with a thin coating of tin. Where does the tin come from?

A factory coats steel with zinc to help it resist rust. The zinc comes from ore. What is an ore?

A heavy ore called galena is mined and processed carefully. What useful metal is taken from galena?

Stainless steel includes chromium, a metal that comes from ore mined from the ground. Why is ore a nonrenewable resource?

A jeweler makes a necklace from a shiny white metal that was refined from ore. Over time, the necklace slowly turns dark as it tarnishes. What metal is it?

A ring is made from a yellow metal that was refined from ore. It stays bright for many years because it does not rust or tarnish. What metal is it?

A stainless steel spoon includes nickel, a metal that comes from ore mined from the ground. Which choice helps the supply of nickel last longer?

Groundwater is pumped from a layer of sandstone under a farm. What property lets the sandstone hold and give up water?

Oil is found inside tiny holes in a limestone layer. What property of the limestone makes this storage possible?

Natural gas moves through a rock layer to a well. What property must the rock layer have for the gas to move?

A shale layer sits above wet sandstone, and water barely passes through it. What property explains why shale can block the water?

A farmer drills into solid granite and finds very little water. What property makes granite a poor aquifer in this place?

One underground layer is coarse sandstone, and another is solid basalt. Where is groundwater more likely to collect and move?

After rain, water soaks into a gravel layer and later flows into a spring. What property of gravel allows this?

Pencil "lead" is made from a soft gray mineral that leaves a dark mark when it is rubbed on paper. Which mineral is used?

A driller compares tight claystone with porous sandstone for a water well. Which layer is the better target and why?

Rainwater seeps into cracks and openings in a limestone layer. What property lets this rock store groundwater?

Sample A scratches glass, but Sample B can be scratched by a fingernail. What property best tells quartz from gypsum?

A student wants to tell a piece of limestone from a piece of sandstone. Which test works best?

One rock has interlocking crystals of several colors. The other has small grains pressed together in layers. Which one is sandstone, and why?

One rock splits into thin flat sheets, while another contains rounded pebbles stuck together. What property identifies slate?

Two dark iron ore samples look similar, but only one is strongly attracted to a magnet. What property identifies magnetite?

Two dark rocks look alike. One is coal and the other is slate. Which property identifies the coal?

One clear mineral dissolves in water, but another clear mineral scratches glass and stays solid. What property identifies halite?

A wet sample feels sticky with tiny grains, while another sample has large rounded pieces. What property best tells clay from gravel?