The Gem Adventure
Children are special. They are curious little energy balls, roaming around anywhere they could, absorbing any information they come across. It is the most crucial stage of life where they explore and discover their interests. Here at The Gem Museum (TGM), we understand that statement. Our co-founders are loving parents of two, and the TGM team adores children. We provide that space for children to learn about rocks, minerals, and gems in a fun manner.
The Gem Adventure is a course specially designed and catered for participating children, guiding them through a gem’s journey from the mine to market. Many do not realise the efforts it took to bring a beautiful gem to your finger. All gems begin from the rock cycle, then it is mined and cut by humans, then finally marketed to the public.
The Gem Adventure kicks off with the Rock Cycle. Explaining the genesis of rocks from molten magma is quite a straightforward process. Magma flows out from the ground or stays within and crystallises while it cools. But for the cooled magma to transform into different types of rocks requires variable environmental conditions and time length. The three main rocks are Igneous Rock, Sedimentary Rock, and Metamorphic Rock.
While pointing out the formation of these rocks to the kids, samples of each type are shown to them. Whether it is a museum specimen or an educational piece, it is carefully handed to them for a closer inspection. Some of those rock samples contain crystals on them which brings us to the topic of crystal growth on rocks. Apart from rocks, we also define how fossilization and petrification take place in organic matter and one of our museum specimens never ceases to be the main attraction when it comes to fossilization.
Moving along to the next station, we involve some geography whereby showing the kids where some of the precious gemstones are sourced and mined. The general idea is gemstones can be found anywhere in the world, but some of them are rare enough that it could only be found in a few countries, Alexandrite for instance. In this station, kids get to know the massive Earth and countries they might not even hear before. Almost everyone who looked at our handmade Gem of the World map is left astonished to learn that Diamonds can be found just across the sea in Kalimantan, Indonesia. Unfortunately for Singapore, it does not have any known gem deposits. After analyzing the map, it follows an activity whereby the kids themselves have to locate the gem sources.
The third station of The Gem Adventure is the most interesting part, where we convert the kids into junior gemologists. They get to learn the way how and what a gemologist look at a gemstone. After that, they are allowed to use the main gemological instrument, the microscope to examine the inclusion within two subjects and put it into the paper as their activity. As the station’s finale, they will have to guess the mystery inclusion within a red stone. The correct or closest answer is rewarded with an additional souvenir.
In station four, we present them the ‘Market’ of the whole mine-to-market journey. The kids get to understand what the jewellery market is all about, a general view on how the end product of a rough mineral is put into a jewellery. All the jewellery market will be nothing without designing it to begin with, and the process requires tedious effort and broad inspiration. The kids will also go through a few of our designs from the sketchbook. They also get to play around with some equipment such as the ring sizer so that they will know the ring size of their little fingers.
With all the knowledge gained through the four stations, it’s time to flex their muscles and spill some sweat. TGM has prepared a gem mining activity for the kids to dig under sand and dirt to look for gemstones. This activity is held on our outdoor balcony away from the comfort of air conditioners with the purpose of mimicking the actual process as much as possible. In the end, they get to take two of their favorite findings home, after they identify the selected gemstones themselves.
A group photo is always a good conclusion to it.
If your kids are interested in signing up for our Kid’s Gem Adventure program, make sure to follow us at our events page for future available dates.
Here is a short quiz on gemstones done by 2 children aged 8 and 10, have fun with your children with the quiz! https://forms.gle/wqJgtkn99GBA65VHA
