Source, structure, teaching bridge or unsupported inference?
The correct category matters because BOU separates external factual evidence from its own navigation and educational structure.
BOU013 · games + evidence practice
Boulder Opal Evidence Practice Lab
Replay four subject-specific learning modules built from BOU’s admitted evidence and explicit teaching boundaries. This is practice, not a specimen-identification engine, travel-status service, appraisal system or reward loop.
Browse Boulder Opal Universe sections
Practice boundary: all examples are text-based, synthetic or diagrammatic. There are no invented real specimens or mines, gambling/loot mechanics, streak pressure, origin prediction, authenticity/treatment diagnosis, value/rarity/investment rankings, destructive testing instructions, or live road/open/closed claims.
Return experience
Continue where you left off — locally, without a streak.
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No account sync · no streak · no leaderboard · no prize · no paid unlock
Module 1
Evidence Classifier
Classify each statement by the kind of evidence relationship BOU actually admits.
Four classes
- Source-backed factual record: A factual statement admitted from cited external evidence.
- BOU-authored structure: A navigation, containment or workflow relationship created by BOU.
- BOU-authored teaching bridge: An educational bridge between source-supported concepts; not a specimen determination.
- Unsupported inference: A conclusion the current BOU evidence does not support.
Module 2
Formation Order
Rebuild BOU005’s four-stage teaching sequence. The order is pedagogical and source-scoped, not a universal specimen cross-section.
Module 3
Field Evidence Challenge
Practice the BOU011 visitor-guidance boundary. Guidance below was checked 2026-09-11; use the linked official sources in Field Explorer immediately before real travel.
Module 4
Pattern Language Challenge
Use descriptive terminology without turning a name into origin, treatment, authenticity, rarity or value evidence.
Complete no-JS learning path
Answer key + evidence explanations
This section is always in the HTML. JavaScript is optional and only checks responses plus local progress.
Evidence Classifier
A GIA field report captions an opal-bearing ironstone concretion from Quilpie.
Answer: Source-backed factual record
This is a source-scoped factual record. It applies to the documented GIA record and does not transfer provenance to a visually similar stone.
Evidence · BOU-SRC-007
The Discovery system links the Lab ironstone layer to the Formation ironstone stage as a teaching bridge.
Answer: BOU-authored teaching bridge
The underlying concepts are source-supported, but the bridge between BOU teaching surfaces is authored by BOU.
Evidence · BOU-SRC-001 · BOU-SRC-007
A loose stone resembles a Yowah nut, so it must have come from Yowah.
Answer: Unsupported inference
Appearance alone does not prove geographic origin. BOU deliberately rejects origin prediction from visual similarity.
Evidence · BOU-authored boundary / no external source claim
The Fields index contains a released Yowah locality record.
Answer: BOU-authored structure
That is a BOU information-architecture fact, not an external geological or access claim.
Evidence · BOU-authored boundary / no external source claim
Formation Order
Published four-stage order
- 1 · Sedimentary setting — Australian opal formation context (BOU-SRC-001)
- 2 · Silica movement — Weathering, groundwater, pathways (BOU-SRC-001)
- 3 · Ironstone occurrence — Concretions, nodules and seams (BOU-SRC-001 · BOU-SRC-007 · BOU-SRC-008)
- 4 · Opal + optics — Precious opal, common opal and potch (BOU-SRC-010 · BOU-SRC-011)
This is BOU’s teaching sequence, not a claim that every Queensland occurrence follows an identical visible cross-section.
Field Evidence Challenge
Which statement matches BOU011 current guidance for Yowah?
Answer: Official fossicking area; fossicking licence required; camping is prohibited in the fossicking area.
BOU011 surfaces the official fossicking-area context and camping prohibition, while sending live road checks back to official current sources.
Evidence · BOU011-SRC-005 · BOU011-SRC-001
Which statement matches BOU011 current guidance for Opalton?
Answer: Designated fossicking land; licence required; camping inside the designated land is permit-scoped.
The official designated-land and permit sources support this narrow current visitor statement; BOU does not infer mine boundaries or permission from history.
Evidence · BOU011-SRC-006 · BOU011-SRC-010 · BOU011-SRC-001
Which statement matches BOU011 current guidance for Toompine?
Answer: Designated fossicking lands exist; licence/camping permit rules and mining-tenure/facility cautions still apply.
BOU keeps current permit/tenure/facility cautions visible and refuses to turn historic mining or visual appearance into access or provenance claims.
Evidence · BOU011-SRC-007 · BOU011-SRC-010 · BOU011-SRC-001
What is the safest BOU011 treatment of Koroit for visitor planning?
Answer: Research locality / regional context; no public fossicking access is asserted without current official evidence.
BOU011 retains Koroit as research/regional context and does not manufacture a public-access claim.
Evidence · BOU011-SRC-002 · BOU011-SRC-004
Pattern Language Challenge
Which description matches BOU’s source-backed definition of pinfire / pinpoint?
Answer: Small, closely set patches of play-of-color.
BOU uses GIA’s descriptive pattern definition. It does not turn the term into origin or value evidence.
Evidence · BOU006-SRC-001
Which description matches BOU’s source-backed definition of harlequin / mosaic?
Answer: Broad, angular, closely set patches of play-of-color.
This is descriptive visual terminology only. BOU explicitly rejects mine, treatment, authenticity or value inference from the name.
Evidence · BOU006-SRC-001 · BOU006-SRC-002
The Australian Museum source used by BOU lists “Chinese writing.” What does BOU currently publish as the safest definition?
Answer: The term is source-listed, but BOU does not publish a definition from that source.
BOU preserves the source gap instead of inventing a definition or attaching origin/rarity significance.
Evidence · BOU-SRC-011
What can a descriptive pattern name establish by itself in BOU?
Answer: A descriptive visual vocabulary entry, within the cited definition or source listing.
Pattern vocabulary supports description and comparison, not provenance, authentication, treatment diagnosis, rarity or investment ranking.
Evidence · BOU006-SRC-001 · BOU-SRC-011
Continue through BOU
Practice links back to the evidence systems it rehearses.
These are navigation links, not recommendation claims.
Question triage
Practice evidence literacy, not specimen certification.
Use the lens after the games to rehearse the boundary between a descriptive answer and a consequential gemological determination.
Description is appropriate
Visible properties can be described without certifying identity.
Educational output only. This interaction does not issue an authenticity, treatment, origin or value certificate.
ICU / CONNECTED DISCOVERY
Continue through related ideas.
These are bounded editorial connections; paid placement does not influence them.
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