In early February, Lignite Council Director of Education and Marketing Retha Mattern, took the coal roadshow to classrooms at St. Mary’s Academy in Bismarck, ND. Two groups of middle schoolers got a hands-on lesson on the importance of coal mining and reclamation by playing in the dirt with the Cake Pan Mining exercise. During the activity, students form groups, complete a permit application, choose mining tools, separate topsoil and overburden, remove the coal and then reclaim their mines. Finally, the students complete an economic worksheet to determine profits or losses.
