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Activity 5.1

IDENTIFYING DIFFERENT WAYS OF OBTAINING NON-RENEWABLE ENERGY

Aim:

When you have completed this activity you will have identified different ways of obtaining non-renewable sources of energy.

You will need:

Procedure:

  • Read the Fact Sheet carefully.
  • Form into groups of three for a cooperative learning exercise.
  • Number off from 1 to 3. Number 1 in each group will make up some questions about COAL to be answered by the other two members. Number 2 will make up questions about OIL and GAS to be answered by the other two. Number 3 will have the task of checking the Fact Sheet to make sure the answers are correct.
  • Do the following matching exercise individually to show how much you have learned.

Try to match the following items from column A with the appropriate items in column B.

Column A Column B

1. Shafts or tunnel required

2. Tankers
 

3. Coal used for electricity
 

4. Mining companies

5. Overburden

6. Pipelines

7. Strip mining
 

8. If the overburden is shallow

9. Drilling rigs

10. Coal used for industrial heating

Carry gas and oil

Must rehabilitate land they have mined

Cause environmental damage if oil spills

Underground coal mine

Built over the level of the sea

Coking coal

Rock and soil over a seam of coal

Thermal coal

Open-cut method

Narrow mining trenches can be gradually rehabilitated.

Chocolate Cream Open-cut Mining

Your teacher will need to set this up.

You will need:

  • One ice-cream container per group of four students. In the bottom place a layer of chocolate cream biscuits. Cover with sand and, if available, place a piece of grass turf on top.
  • Another ice-cream container to hold the mined material
  • One tablespoon per group

Procedure:

  • Each person in the group takes a turn to remove the ‘overburden’ with the spoon
  • When the ‘seam’ of coal (choc cream) is reached, the group decides how to extract this from the ‘rock layers’ on either side.
  • Then the group decides how to rehabilitate the land with what is in the second container so that the original layers are returned.
  • The group discusses the question: how is this exercise like real mining?

Available as:

PDF – Activity 5.1

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