WILL SEBERGER/Arizona Daily Wildcdat Theresa Kayzar, a geology senior, smashes a crystal into small fragments in the parking lot at the Tucson Bridge Club on Jan. 24. Kayzar's club, the UA Society of Earth Science Students, will be distributing the mineral shards to kids visiting the club's booth at the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show at TCC this weekend.

Rock hammer in hand and sporting sunglasses as protective eye gear, Theresa Kayzar smashes a large, clear quartz crystal, sending small shards shattering across a parking lot.

Kayzar, like many geologists, is wildly attached to her rock hammer.

"I've had it for 2 1/2 years. It is like my baby. I have a special place for it at home," Kayzar confessed, while wiping blood from her finger after being sliced by a sharp slice of quartz. "It is kinda burnt because I put it in lava in Hawaii."

Kayzar, a geosciences senior, joined other members of the UA Society of Earth Science Students to crush minerals into egg-size pieces for their Junior Education Exhibit at the annual Tucson Gem & Mineral Show this weekend at the Tucson Convention Center.

Lovers of rocks, minerals, gems and fossils flock from across the globe to the Old Pueblo to buy, sell and admire specimens made by the earth's natural processes.

For more than 10 years, SESS has put together the Junior Educational Exhibit, the only activity for children at the show, as a haven for youngsters to learn about rocks, planets, fossils and the geologic cycle.

SESS will give out approximately 48 buckets of 12 different types of minerals to kids at the show.

With thousands of school-age children and parents to work with, the SESS club will have help from others in the geosciences department and between 100 and 200 NATS students.

"Science has taken a beating in public schools. It is overlooked and underfunded, and it is good for the kids to get exposed to it," said Ben Norton, SESS president and geosciences senior.

This year's Junior Educational Exhibit will have a table where kids can look at minerals under a UV light to see them fluoresce, observe thin slices of minerals under microscopes, experiment with floating volcanic rocks, participate in a treasure hunt and fill an egg crate with crushed minerals.

The show is celebrating its 50th year, and will boast more gold specimens in honor of its golden anniversary.

"We will be reading the story of King Midas to the kids and will have a photo exhibit," said York Lewis, a geosciences senior who is one of two SESS Junior Education Exhibit coordinators.

Between 3,000 and 5,000 kids will likely stop by the SESS exhibit throughout the weekend.

"The kids love it. The kids typically follow the dinosaur footprints to the area and will spend over an hour at exhibit and one hour doing the treasure hunt," said Peter Kresan, a geosciences senior lecturer and the former SESS faculty adviser. "It is a good way to get them interested in the world around them."

For Candice Marburger, a geosciences senior and SESS junior education exhibit coordinator, geology is a platform for greater environmental issues.

"I have a passion for the environment.This is good for me to teach those who don't have a science background," Marburger said.

Enthusiasts like Marburger are so crazy about rocks, they even have a favorite mineral.

"Besides diamonds, I like tanzanite because it's purple," Marburger said.

For now, Tyler Vandruff's favorite is a piece of wulfenite that he found at the Red Cloud Mine in western Arizona.

But "asking me my favorite mineral is like asking if I have a favorite album; it changes every day," said Vandruff, a geological sciences senior.

Yesterday, SESS students lugged buckets of minerals, large fossil pieces and posters into the north end of the TCC arena, where the Junior Educational Exhibit was set up.

The Tucson Gem and Mineral Society, which sponsors the TCC show along with local merchants, donated many of the minerals that will be given out to kids. TGMS gives a monetary donation to SESS for its involvement in the show.

"The SESS students are satisfied by getting kids excited in geology," said Susan Beck, the head of the geosciences department and faculty sponsor for the educational exhibit.

Surrounded by mineral and jewelry dealers showing off their specimens in expensive glass showcases, Norton, clad in a green shirt reading "Stop continental drift," poured the minerals into tubs yesterday.

"It is important for kids to have minerals they can pick up and have pieces for free," Beck said. "The dealers have nice stuff for sale, but here they can touch them."

Those wishing to check out minerals, fossils, gems, meteorites and lots of gold can check out the TCC showcase and the other individual shows scattered at walking distance around the center under white tents and within hotels.

Admission to TCC is $5.50 and parking is $4. TCC is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission into the individual shows may vary, but most are free.