A Golden Opportunity for Science
This activity has been accepted by a Panel Peer Review
HideThis resource received an Accept or Accept with minor revisions rating from a Panel Peer Review process
These materials were reviewed using face-to-face NSF-style review panel of geoscience and geoscience education experts to review groups of resources addressing a single theme. Panelists wrote reviews that addressed the criteria:
- scientific accuracy and currency
- usability and
- pedagogical effectiveness
- Accept
- Accept with minor revisions
- Accept with major revisions, or
- Reject.
Following the panel meetings, the conveners wrote summaries of the panel discussion for each resource; these were transmitted to the creator, along with anonymous versions of the reviews. Relatively few resources were accepted as is. In most cases, the majority of the resources were either designated as 1) Reject or 2) Accept with major revisions. Resources were most often rejected for their lack of completeness to be used in a classroom or they contained scientific inaccuracies.
This material is replicated on a number of sites as part of the SERC Pedagogic Service Project
This site uses activities about gold to teach science, centering on the following information: how the pursuit of gold shaped society; metaphors, myths, lores and legends about gold; the mineral properties of gold; lode deposits and placer deposits; mining and recovery of gold; and the technology of heap leaching. There is also a debate between different interest groups involving a small gold-mining town for students to consider, mention of a few historic mining sites and ghost towns for field trips, a map of U.S. regions that have produced gold, and a poster to illustrate the gold mining process, such as exploration, extraction, milling, refining, transport, and the creation of mining boom towns.
Learning Goals
The role-playing exercise will enable students to:- Discuss the environmental and economic effects of gold mining.
- Consider the history of gold mining.
- Develop rhetorical skills including public speaking and debating.
Context for Use
The site recommends taking 15 minutes of class to introduce the exercise and another 60 the next class to do the debate. The instructor may have students do research on their own time in between (and probably should, given how little prior knowledge students are likely to have about mining hazards). This exercise would be appropriate for an introductory geology or environmental or resource geology class.Teaching Materials
The site, A Golden Opportunity for Science (more info) , includes information on the history, folklore, and geology of gold mining. It also proposes some classroom (lab) exercises, possible suggestions for field trips (for classes in the right part of the country) and a role-playing exercise in two parts: "Tourists or Miners? You Make the Call" and "The Great Debate in Midasville". Everything needed for the role-play is already there, although the students should seek additional research materials elsewhere.Teaching Notes and Tips
The instructor can assign the students some research on the environmental problems of gold mining and on the history of areas with gold mines. A short paper on these topics or a position paper for the character can be assigned as well, due the day of the debate.Assessment
None described, but the instructor can assign and grade a preliminary research paper, as described above.References and Resources
If the students are doing additional research:- The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has research projects describing the hazards faced by miners. Even without major accidents, gold mining is dangerous work.
- Dangers to the community are similar to those found in news articles at Bankwatch Environmental Group dealing with problem mines in several countries in Eastern Europe.
