Mining is the process of taking fossil fuels or minerals from the earth. There are many methods of mining with varying degrees of negative impact on the environment. Today the children became the miners as we discovered how hard it is to choose principals over greed and money!
We learnt about how coal is formed and were amazed that it took over 280 million years for the coal we mine today to be created! That is around the same times as dinosaurs walked the Earth. When we realized how long it took for the coal to be made we realized why the scientists are so interested in finding alternative fuels - we are simply taking it faster than it can be made!
The fun came when the children were given a choccy chip cookie each and were told they were mining for coal - the children were marked on amount of coal mined, but also the impact to their environment. It was a great way of realistically seeing the devastating impact of unplanned and deep mining. The cookies tasted great too!
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