The Near North District School Board (NNDSB) has introduced a series of mining workshops for grades three to five to teach them about the rocks and minerals that lie beneath.
The initiative is in partnership with the Canadian Institute of Mining Northern Gateway Branch, the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP), along with the board’s own Specialist High Skills Major programming.
There are 15 elementary schools with more than 450 students taking part in the program, aptly titled Deeper and Deeper: Discovering Rocks and Minerals.
“The level of support and enthusiasm held by our educators, coupled with the excitement demonstrated by our young learners,” explained Roy Desjardins, the OYAP coordinator, “showcases how synchronous experiential learning can be brought into the classroom via a virtual platform.”
Workshops are streamed online for students, who interact with a live instructor, which constitutes the synchronous experiential learning aspect of the program.
Besides learning about gems, minerals, and rocks, the workshops also highlight various aspects of the mining industry, including “exploring the mining cycle, and comparing surface and underground mines,” explained Josh Casey, the board’s communications coordinator.
The lesson also discusses “the costs and benefits of mining” with students “learning about responsibilities to the environment and communities,” Casey added.
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Recently, the workshop was presented to a grade four and five class at E.T. Carmichael Public School in North Bay.
Mike Landoni teaches the class and liked that “individualized kits” on the topic were provided to each student, allowing the youth “to do hands-on learning and create some of their own personal connections based on that experience.”
“Students had some prior knowledge and some experience playing with rocks,” Landoni said, noting “just being outdoors in the environment” provided some students with a cursory understanding of the minerals and rocks surrounding us.
“But for others,” he said, “I could tell this was the first time they’ve actually thought about that scientific approach,” to the subject.
Approaching the rocks and minerals “with a hands-on primary experience is a good way for students to have an introduction to or a little taste of this world,” of geology, Landoni said, adding the experience might influence “their own learning journey later on this year or later on in life.”
One of his students, Nevaeh Einarson, “learned a lot about rocks and minerals” during the workshop, she admitted. “What they are, what they do, how they smell, and how they feel,” were all covered in the experiential lessons, she noted.
The principal of E.T. Carmichael, Jamey Byers, was happy to provide the workshops to students, saying “our students are fortunate to have the Mining Matters synchronous experiential learning opportunity delivered right to their classroom.”
“We have a lot of mining industry-related learning opportunities as our students enter their secondary school years,” as well, so these lessons provide a good starting point.
“Having our elementary students engage and be aware of the mining industry and the underlying science can bring added awareness and spark interests in that field,” Byers said.
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
