Modern industrialized society depends on remarkable quantities of natural resources to maintain the quality of our lives. Every material good we use every day must be extracted from the Earth through some process.

The website of Resource-World.net has a very nice illustration of the raw materials we use everyday - even in products we take for granted.

Follow the link to Resource-World.net's Consumer Goods section to see the ingredients of a typical mountain bike.

1. How many basic elements are used in the manufacture of a mountain bike?

2. From what earth materials were these elements extracted?

3. Create a list documenting the elements used in mountain bike manufacture and the likely geologic sources of those elements.

4. What geologic settings are most likely to contain the raw materials used in mountain bike manufacture?

5. Create a list of those materials used in mountain bike manufacture and associate that list with the most likely geologic rock type hosting that material (for example: clay would be found in sedimentary rock).

6. Make a list of other products you use every day and try to determine what the geologic source of those materials might be.