Cole Protzman was fascinated by the minerals and colorful stones in his Deer Lakes third-grade classroom, but wondered if the program’s host, the Monongahela Rockhounds, had made bigger discoveries.

“Have you ever found a T-Rex fossil?” Cole asked Friday at East Union Intermediate Center.

Rockhounds member Margaret Robertson said she hasn’t, but encouraged students to look around, wherever they are, because unique finds are possible.

“I always picked up things as a kid,” said Robertson of West Deer.

She parlayed her curiosity into an adult pastime with a 35-year membership in the Rockhounds, a South Hills-based club founded in 1967. Its mission is to educate and inspire all ages about the Earth.

Robertson and her daughter, Sonnet, have been bringing the gem and mineral show to Deer Lakes since Sonnet, herself, was a third grader at East Union.

On Friday, the perimeter of teacher Sherry Soxman’s classroom was brimming with amethyst, quartz and celestite — a blue crystal that is in the running as the official state mineral.

Student Gabbie Crame, 9, said the purple amethyst was her favorite.

“It looks like my birthstone,” she said. “But all the crystals are kind of pretty.”

Soxman, a district teacher for 25 years, couldn’t contain her excitement, despite having co-hosted the program for 13 years.

“We study rocks and minerals in third grade,” Soxman said. “Every year after the Robertsons’ visit, the kids will be at recess and start picking up rocks, asking what kind they are.

“Margaret and Sonnet come the night before and fill my room with the display. It’s amazing.”

The Robertsons provide the program free to the district.

Strewn atop the tables were ammonite — ocean-dwelling mollusks from the Jurassic Age — found in Germany, yellow quartz unearthed in Arkansas and green fluorite from Russia.

“Wherever you go, you can look for things,” Margaret Robertson told the students.

Her club for many years organized the Gem and Mineral Show at the Carnegie Museum in Oakland. Now, members travel to schools and nonprofits to share their passion and inspire others. The group is hosting a Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show on July 27-28 at the West Mifflin Volunteer Fire Company No. 4, where admission is free.

“The kids are always excited to see everything, so that makes it fun,” she said.

Marco Mangieri, 9, left the demonstration with a newfound desire to excavate.

“It was pretty cool to learn that you can find this stuff anywhere,” he said. “My favorite one today was clear as glass, and they found it in a driveway or some other regular place.”

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