A collection of rocks and minerals can bring out the little kid in middle school students. When they walk into the classroom and see all of the rocks, their curiosity is sparked. They hurry over to the table and pick up each rock with childlike glee. Because of this enthusiasm, students generally have a lot of prior knowledge about rocks. The author of this activity decided that technology would be the tool to use for taking students' thinking and learning to a higher level. To do this, students use computers to create a mineral database.