Classroom Exercises

Try the following activities to increase children's understanding of mining

Write newspaper articles on historical mining discoveries in the U.S. For example, announce the Sutter's Mill, California, find of 1848; the Comstock Lode in Nevada in the 1860's; the Cripple Creek, Colorado, discovery in 1892; or the Anvil Creek, Alaska, lode found in 1898.

Have the students prepare and present reports (including maps) on gold rushes in the U.S., Canada, Australia, South Africa, South Africa, West Africa, Malaya, Mexico, and Siberia. How did the discovery of gold change the history of these areas?

Beehive ovens, often constructed by Italian immigrants, produced charcoal, which could burn at temperatures high enough to smelt gold. The ovens pictured here are in the Bayhorse Mining District of Idaho. Bureau of Land Management.

Carried in solution by water, metals may precipitate to form ore. Inside the Earth, metals seep into cracks, forming veins of ore. To observe this phenomena, put an iron nail in a bowl of water. After the rust forms, add a dry sponge. Wait a few days to observe how the rust gets absorbed by your sponge "rock".

Contact a local geologist to identify nearby spots where students might pan for gold.

For a classroom panning exercise, obtain some fine copper beebee pellets or iron fillings from a hardware store. Mix one-quarter cup of the "gold" with about 10 liters of course sand. Put the mixture in a bucket and add water to make a slurry. Have students use small shallow bowls or old pie pans to scoop up a bowl of slurry and swirl it over another bucket or large pot. Tell them not to tip the pan too far and to continue adding plain water while swirling until only the pellets or fillings remain in the bowl.

Building a Sluice Box: With a staple gun, attach to a plywood base a precut piece of indoor/outdoor carpet covered with a precut rectangle of fine chicken wire and four wooden crosspieces. Affix the base to the 3-m-long scarp-board sides. Shelly Fischman.

Build a small sluice box with wood, indoor-outdoor carpeting, and chicken-wire scraps (see illustration). Place the box at a 5-15 degree angle, run a slow stream of water down the sluice, and place some mixed fine materials at the top. (Try fish tank gravel, sand, or lapidary grits.) The heaviest materials (representing gold) will be caught in the chicken-wire riffles.

Show students samples of pyrite, available from local rock shops, geologists, or rock collectors. How could prospectors distinguish between fool's gold and real gold? (Fool's gold is pyrite. You can distinguish between the two by comparing their hardness and color. In a streak test, gold leaves a yellow streak, pyrite a greenish black streak. Pyrite has a hardness of 6.5, gold a hardness of about 2.5. Pyrite will scratch gold, but gold will not scratch pyrite.)

Give each student a chocolate chip cookie and "mining tools" such as flat toothpicks, round toothpicks, and paper clips. Tell the children to mine the chocolate chips. Allow about 10 minutes for the mining operation. Discuss how the students could have mined more effectively.

Identify the environmental impacts of early placer mining operations-- downstream sedimentation, for example, which eroded banks and vegetation and harmed aquatic life.

Have students collect pictures of modern mining operations. Point out the simple machines involved in the process. Design mining tools of the future.

Reclaiming the land after mining makes it more productive and available once more for grazing, recreation, or wildlife habitat. Reclamation consists of recontoring the land and planting seeds or trees to help prevent erosion and enhance vegetation. To show how soil erosion varies according to land surface, pour water on three different mounds-- one made with soil, one with sand, and one with gravel. What happens? Plant grass seed on the mound of soil. When it grows, try the experiment again to demonstrate the value of planting vegetation on lands that have been exposed by mining.

At the library, research miners' superstitions. What are tommyknockers?

Investigate mining related careers--metallurgist, geologist, mining engineer, chemical engineer, surveyor, driller, blaster, environmental scientist, and cartographer.

Miners faced numerous on-the-job hazards. Falling tools and rocks, cave-ins, rock bursts, and mine fires all took their tool. Careless blasting resulted in the loss of fingertips, hands, and noses. Nauseating fumes from the dynamite caused miners to pass out. Dust thrown out by compressed air drills penetrating certain rocks caused silicosis (a lung disease). Have students prepare reports on safety equipment (such as water-flushed drills, safety glasses, boots, and hard-hats) developed to reduce these hazards. A videotape entitle "Don't Touch" describes the dangers of blasting caps and detonators; for a free copy write to the Institute of Makers of Explosives, 1120 19th Street, N.W., Suite 310, Washington, D.C. 20036-3605; tel. 202-429-9280.

Jeremy M. Brodie
Environmental Education and Volunteer Programs
Last Updated: May 1, 1996