PENNSYLVANIA - A KEYSTONE GEOLOGY:
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CORE SAMPLE SIMULATION
Explore Play-doh® for Mineral Deposits
Copyright 1997, Randy E. Newcomer
GUIDANCE FOR USE:
This material is available at no charge for educators to freely use in their own programs only.
It may not be distributed for any fee nor included in any programs in which participants must pay a fee without written permission of the author. I also appreciate hearing from anyone who has used it along with suggestions and comments for improvements. You can email me at renewcomer@rohrersquarry.com. This activity is adapted from
several sources including Out of the Rock from the National Energy Institute.
OBJECTIVES:
Students will be able to demonstrate the basic procedure for planning and exploring an area with core drilling. They will use what they learn from simple data collected to show what reasoning might be used to select a site to be mined.
INTRODUCTION:
This activity is adapted from two found in Out of the Rock (National Energy Foundation, 1995). Substantial changes include the laminated grid and the use of clear plastic straws to eliminate the need to use a razor blade to cut straws open. Students build a Play-doh model of layers of rocks, trade models with another group, and use straws to remove core samples from the model. They chart their results on a grid and designate the best place to locate a quarry to mine a particular color of Play-doh.
MATERIALS (for each group of four students):
4 cans Play-doh (1 each of red, yellow, blue, & white)
1 plastic laminated grid
1 non-laminated grid
8 pieces of clear plastic straws (a 7” straw can be cut into 4 pieces)
map - Limestone & Dolomite Distribution in Pennsylvania
limestone core sample
(note on materials: If a little care is taken to keep students from “blending” the Play-doh, it will be able to be used for many classes. Colors can be seperated back into original containers even when they are pressed together in the contstruction of the rock layers. Some mixing doesn’t matter and in fact may add some additional realism to the simulation. I found clear straws at a paper supply store. They were individually packaged for lunch counter use. They are critical, however, to avoid slicing the straw open as is suggested in other examples of this activity I have found. Also the appearance of the layers of color in the clear plastic are quite dramatic.)
PRESENTATION:
The following steps must be followed in order. In several cases it is important that students be kept unaware of steps to follow or even the full purpose of the activity.
STEP ONE: BUILDING THE FOUNDATION
We are going to build a model of rock layers. To form the first layer, take the white Play-doh and flatten it out into a pizza shape that covers most of the plastic coated grid without covering the letters or numbers along each side. Other students can form three or four ping-pong sized balls out of the red and the same out of the blue Play-doh. Place these together in
any pattern in the center of the white layer and press them down until they “squoosh” together and out towards, but not to the end. Finally, the form the yellow into a flattened pizza shape and cover the first two layers with it. Press down on the yellow, especially around the edges.
STEP TWO: THE BIG SWITCH
This step is kept from the students until the model is completed. Once all students have finished, the models are exchanged with other groups so that no group has the model it constructed.
STEP THREE: PLAN AND DRILL
Explain that each group’s goal is to find out as much as possible about what lies under the yellow layer. Quickly add that this is going to be accomplished without simply lifting up the yellow layer, which unlike in the real world can be done with these models. If pressed down well enough, this most likely will not be a temptation. To do this the eight straws will be used as drills to take core samples at various areas on the grid. Explain that some careful planning must first take place to make best use of the eight drills on thirty-six squares on the grid. In the real-life model this would be done due to the expense of drilling.
Once planned, each group can take it’s eight core samples, being careful to note on the paper grid where “mostly red” or “mostly blue” deposits are found. The Play-doh, can be left in the straws.
STEP FOUR: LOCATE THE QUARRY
After all groups have completed their core sample mapping of their model they must look at the results and decide where it would be best to locate a quarry to mine the red Play-doh. The desired color to be mined is not revealed until this point because some transparency or other clues may lead them to only small sections of the grid if they are aware of what they are ultimately looking for. If a series of classes are conducted the color can be changed from red to blue to counteract any communication that may take place between classes.
Explain that the quarry should be located where they find the most red samples. It may be irregularly shaped, but constitute only one mine. They should avoid the blue as much as possible, since anywhere they have to dig through blue to get to the red they will be losing money. After each group has it’s grid checked, it can disassemble the model and return the Play-doh to it’s containers. If they peel the yellow layer off first they can see how well they did locating the red material.
FOLLOW UP:
Ask students what they could have done to get a more accurate idea of where the blue and red materials was located. Recognize that they could have used more core samples, although they would have had to strike a balance between the cost and the benefit. In a real situation could there have been other clues?
Show a core sample of limestone if one is available. Do the students recognize it from what they have just done? It resembles the material pulled up by the straw in the activity. Have them consider what might have to replace the straw to retrieve such a sample from solid rock.
Have students consider Pennsylvania as a source of limestone. Could the whole state explored for limestone by taking core samples? Of course it could, but it would be far too expensive to indescriminately drill around the state. Other clues would be used to focus any exploratory work.
What is limestone used for? (Blacktop and as base for roads, building construction, concrete, and agricultural uses would be the basic ones.) What items are around them that needed limestone for their construction?
Show the student the map of Pennsylvania with Limestone distribution indicated on it. If students would consider this like they did their grid, where would they place their limestone quarry? One of the primary areas would certainly be Lancaster County. Students could try to find out if there are many limestone quarries in this area or other areas that have deposits indicated on the map.
CORE SAMPLE GRID
(squares should measure about 1" one each side.)
PENNSYLVANIA - A KEYSTONE GEOLOGY:
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