Secrest Miners Explore Resources

Secrest students welcomed a fun end-of-the-week program from SOLE staff all about the history and impact of Colorado mining by enthusiastically diving into hands-on activities. The hour was filled with discoveries and realizations about the world around us as well as the history of mining.

Do you know where the materials for all the everyday objects around you came from? Students were challenged to identify what some mined resources were used to make some daily use objects. First, they had to match with each other. Then as pairs, they attempted to discover something in the room that was made of the same resource! It’s eye-opening to realize how much we rely on things that come out of the ground.

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The most exciting part of the Cookie Mining program is right in the name, of course. Cookies to mine! Everyone was eager to dig in to mining for chocolate chips. Toothpicks were poking into crevices in search of another chip, crumbs were flying across desks, and quiet cheers were heard whenever a new resource was successfully extracted.

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When it came time to review the mining process, students were surprised at how much land could be affected by mining for resources. Attempting to put the land (cookie crumbs) back together proved difficult. Everyone started to see how important it is to do a cost-benefit analysis, since we value both what is below the ground and what is above it. To finish the day, everyone got a chance to eat a new cookie as a reward for being such great miners and listeners.

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#CookieMining #History #Mining #SecrestElementary #ColoradoParksandWildlife