Mining Has Costs Above Ground

Lab Brief #6

🎯 Your mission

Predict it first. Then prove yourself right (or wrong).

⚡ The twist

Nature loves to surprise the careful watcher.

What you'll learn

Getting metal out of the ground moves enormous quantities of rock, uses a great deal of water and energy, and leaves waste behind. Recycling aluminium uses about a twentieth of the energy of making it from ore.

Key words

extraction
Getting a useful material out of the ground or out of its ore.
spoil
Waste rock left over after the useful material has been removed.

Make a hypothesis first

Before you start: write down what you think will happen, and why.

Say your guess out loud — then find out if you were right.

Get ready

🧰 What you need

cookies with chips
cocktail sticks
balance
paper plates

⚠️ Safety first

Check for food allergies before starting, and do not eat anything used in the model.

Step 1 of 4 · Read

Think about what you just learned: say what "extraction" and "spoil" mean in your own words before you start.

Step 2 of 4 · Do

Model extraction by picking chocolate chips out of a cookie with a cocktail stick, weighing the chips and the crumbs. Work out the ratio of waste to product and compare it with a real ore grade.

Step 3 of 4 · Observe

Record what actually happened, including anything that did not match what you expected.

Step 4 of 4 · Record

Write a conclusion that answers the question this lesson opened with, and state your uncertainty.

Question 1 of 2

Recycling aluminium compared with making it from ore uses about:

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 2 of 2

Waste rock left after extraction is called:

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Mind = blown

🔬 The more you look, the more nature shows you.

Nice work!

You got 0 of 2 right.

Next: Soil Is a Resource Too All lessons

🎯

Next Smart Experiment

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✨ More to explore

🌍 Where you see this in real life: This shows up in your everyday life more than you'd think.

🏆 Stretch challenge (try it this week): Try one experiment in real life this week — even a tiny one.

👨‍👩‍👧 For the dinner table: “What's the most surprising thing you learned today?”

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