Gold Panning
Purpose: To simulate gold panning & discover ‘Who is the best miner!’
Task: To mine gold using panning methods
Organisation: Individual
You will need:
- River gravel (sand with a little dirt)
- Gold (iron pyrite)
- Gold pans (frying pan or any other container that resembles a gold pan)
- Wet area (or outside)
- Ice cream containers
- Some chocolate gold coins for the winners
Activity:
- Mix the iron pyrite into the river gravel
- Using the watch glass as a pan, give, each student an equal amount of ‘river gravel’ (students may work in twos or threes , taking turns to pan if equipment is limited)
- Fill the pan with water and swirl away the dirt
- Continue this process, swirling, moving and tilting the pan, allowing a little of the water and sand to spill over into the tailing dam (ice cream container)
- Set a time limit for students to pan their gold
Follow Up:
- Who panned the most gold? (Present winner(s) with prize)
- Examine the tailings dam – How much gold was lost?
- What should we do with the tailings dams now?
- Why can we separate gold in this way? (Gold is approximately 19 times more dense than water and 5 to 6 times more dense than other minerals
Record: Using different coloured paper and shapes, students record the activity under the following headings:
- What I did (blue square)
- What happened (yellow triangle)
- What I learned (pink circle)
Optional download:
© 2004 NSW Minerals Council 