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Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience > Role Playing > Role-Playing Scenarios > A Golden Opportunity for Science
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A Golden Opportunity for Science

Teaching Materials by Carl Barna, Richard Brook, Shelly Fischman, Shelley Smith, and Mary Tisdale for the Bureau of Land Management - Starting Point page by R.E. Teed (SERC).

This 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:

  1. scientific accuracy and currency
  2. usability and
  3. pedagogical effectiveness
Reviewers rated the resources:
  1. Accept
  2. Accept with minor revisions
  3. Accept with major revisions, or
  4. Reject.
They also singled out those resources they considered particularly exemplary, which are given a gold star rating.

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
Summary

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:

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:

Subject

Geoscience:Geology:Economic Geology, Environmental Science:Waste, Geoscience:Geology:Mineralogy:Physical Properties, Environmental Science:Mineral Resources:Mining, Environmental Science:Mineral Resources

Resource Type

Activities:Lab Activity, Project, Classroom Activity

Ready for Use

Ready to Use

Grade Level

College Lower (13-14):Introductory Level

Earth System Topics

Solid Earth:Earth Materials:Minerals, Human Dimensions:Resources, Waste

Topics

Solid Earth:Mineralogy:Physical Properties, Human Dimensions/Resources

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