Welcome to an Inquiry into Coal Mining

This page is designed to accompany a portion of your elementary-middle school social methods course that deals with inquiry as an instructional process. Your orientation to this page will be provided in class. Links on this page lead to various strategies that use artifacts, songs, maps, newspaper articles, biography, and photos as data sources to promote inquiry-based learning focused on coal mining. 

Springboard into Coalmining: An initial examination of data to frame the problem

A springboard into an inquiry is something that gets the learners' attention and begins to bring into focus the problem or questions to be investigated.  This initial springboard activity should  lead to the generation of hypotheses that will guide the inquiry. Examine the first two artifacts and consider what they represent. Who produced these objects? Who  used them and what were they good for if only Congress can print money?  The third image is a bit different. What do you think it was used for? What is it's connection to coalmining? To help you answer this question you will view a short clip from the film October Sky in class. 

 

After you have examined these coins and the film clip you will be asked to generate some hypotheses about coalmining as a way of life, the economic importance of coal, and the environmental impact of coalmining on the environment. 

Another way to use photos as a springboard was developed by Dr. Timothy Little of Michigan State University. This hypotheses generation  strategy  is focused on coal mining and uses some of the images from the photo analysis activity below.

Once the springboard has generated some hypotheses, students are ready to examine some data sets. In the model of inquiry presented here, the data sets have been identified. Additionally, questions or teaching strategies have been developed to guide the students in the analysis, translation, and evaluation of the data. This is a very structured form of inquiry but one that is appropriate for students from elementary through high school. With the Internet, students could also be encouraged to identify possible data sets using search engines.

Coalmining Songs Data Set

The following data set consists of  three songs that have been written by different musicians to express their life views of coalmining. As a writer for Rolling Stone you have been asked to prepare a story about folk music as expressed in songs about coal mining. Examine the lyrics from these songs and explain what the title means? Consider the lyrics in each song and look for similar themes and ideas that are expressed?  What unique ideas strike you from each song about how coalminers earn their livelihood? What problems, joys, frustrations are described? 

 

In two of the songs above the impact of big machines and the destruction of the land are described. Below are three photographs depicting environmental impacts  of coal mining. What alternative sources of energy could we explore to ease these kinds of impacts?  In what ways can we conserve energy? Develop a dramatic presentation or prepare a series of posters to illustrate your response. You can click on each link to see an enlarged image.

 

It is predicted the site of this mine will produce 6 million tons of cool this year.

These emission clouds after burning coal are actually harmless water vapor. It's the invisble particles, e.g. sulfur dioxide that are so harmful.

This a picture of slurry pond. It is used to collect runoff after the coal has been washed.

 

Maps  and Graphs Data Set  Illinois Science magazine has asked you to prepare an article analyzing  the projected needs and availability of coal resources as they might impact the state. The editors are also requesting a spreadsheet incorporating one of the images as an illustration to accompany your article. Your article must use data from at least one map and one of the charts.  See example here of a spreadsheet and image  that must accompany your article to illustrate your point of view.

 

 

Newspaper Articles Data Set and Content Area Reading

The following are links to a cartoon and two articles about coal mining that appeared in newspapers.   Each of the articles includes a description of a content area reading strategy that is designed to increase student comprehension. In addition to an example of the strategy, complete instructions are provided for how to construct the strategy using your own content. 

 

What points of view are being expressed in the cartoon? Who is being poked fun at and why?  Prepare a letter to the editor describing your reaction to the cartoon.

Additional Content Area Strategies to promote comprehension:

Justification for including content focusing on coal mining in the social studies curriculum is not difficult to establish. Economically, Illinois is a leading producer of coal. Coal mining also has historical and social significance in relation to the rise of organized labor. Learning about a mutual theme of history and geography, human-environmental interactions, can be developed by studying coal mining. Coal mining relates to any number of thematic strands identified by the National Council for the Social Studies. Four of the ten themes seem particularly relevant:

When considering coal mining as a source of social studies curriculum content, state and local social studies goals and learning benchmarks should also be considered. For those interested in learning more about coalmining will find these links by the Ayer Company an good starting point from which one could select curriculum content in constructing a unit on coal mining.

Here are some other links you might want to explore for information about the mining of coal:

The following links are examples: of strategies that could be incorporated into a social studies inquiry unit centered on coal mining. After visiting a link make notes and come to class prepared to respond to the following discussion probes:

  1. Summarize the strategy and your reaction to it (including what you learned)?
  2. How would you modify the strategy to fit your own curriculum?
  3. How are the NCSS thematic strands and the State Goals and Learning Benchmarks addressed in this activity?
  4. If you were to use this strategy as an activity in your social studies class, what would you tell your students before they began?
  5. How would you assess what your students learned from the activity?

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copyright © 2006: Joseph A. Braun, Jr

jabraun@ilstu.edu