Minerals and metals are part of everyday existence, including in the air people breathe. They are either in, or have a hand in creating, nearly all of consumer products. As essential as they are, minerals and metals are too often unseen, unappreciated, and unnoticed. In the teaching of preservice primary and secondary teachers as well as high…

The unequal distribution of natural resources is the direct result of past geologic processes. Once a promising region is located, geologists use a variety of techniques to find the materials and energy that society consumes. Their tools can be as simple as a hand lens or as sophisticated as a satellite. Along the way, exploration geologists and…

This article describes a field course in Cornwall looking at mineral processing with the focus on the chemistry involved. The course was split into two parts. The first looked at tin mining based around Penzance. This involved visiting mines, hunting for mineral samples, carrying out a stream survey and visiting the Camborne School of Mines…

This article describes an activity in which ninth graders explore a plan to strip-mine coal in Wyoming and Montana, send it by train to the Northwest, then ship it to Asia to be burned. Students' questions ranged from "Why are we mining for more coal if it's the biggest contributor to global warming" and "How can adults doom our…

In 30 years of teaching, the author never taught explicitly about coal. Coal appeared in his social studies curriculum solely as a labor issue, and coal was mostly invisible in his history classes. The world cannot afford this kind of curricular invisibility today. Forty percent of the main greenhouse gas produced in the United States, carbon…