# Learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

- understand the facts, concepts, principles, theories, classification systems and language associated with minerals and rocks
- use the essential terms, concepts and strategies of mineralogy
- apply knowledge and understanding of the study of rock thin sections using a polarising microscope
- work with and recognise a variety of minerals and microtextures in igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks
- make systematic descriptions and identifications of minerals in rocks, observing them using images of thin sections viewed under a polarising microscope, and deduce how and in what environments the minerals and rocks were formed.

OpenLearn - An introduction to minerals and rocks under the microscope
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