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Title: Exploration Activities
Level: Middle School
Time: 2 hours
KERA Goals: 1.15; 2.22; 2.4

 Objective:

The students will understand the stages in finding, removing, and processing mineral resources.

Activity:

Mineral Resources Maze

This miner is searching for Coal Resources.  Follow his path through the maze.

Activity

Activity: Exploration

Have each student use a red crayon to color a small shape of their choice on a piece of paper. Let the student decide where to place the shape. Have the student color over the sheet with black crayon, covering the initial colors. Exchange the sheets among students and have them use a pin to scratch small areas in the black color to show the color underneath in an attempt to discover and outline the red area. Have the student pretend that each area they scratch is an exploration attempt and costs in excess of $1.000,000. Have the student determine the cost to find the red area (coal seam) and to outline the entire spot Relate the activity to the cost associated with finding and defining coal bed.  For the first layer use colored pencils instead of crayon.

Activity:

example:

mining:  $1 / ton
processing:  $5 / ton
reclamation:  $1,000,000


Adapted from materials provided by The Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, Inc.