Resources
The Sterling Hill Mining Museum Education Committee has developed lesson information sheets, lesson plans, and student surveys that are designed to be used in the classroom by teachers as preparation for or as a follow-up to a class trip to the Sterling Hill Mining Museum.
These resources are aligned with the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards. They are designed to extend, enhance and enrich the educational experiences of a class trip to the museum. Below you can find these resources and download their PDFs.
Teacher Information Sheets
What’s In It? How Is It Made?
This document is intended to show the connection between the products you and your students use every day and raw materials taken from the Earth. Mining, quarrying, and oil-and-gas production not only provide the ingredients to make nearly everything we use in our daily lives, but also are the source of most of the energy needed to process those raw materials into finished products.
What's in it? How is it made? PDF
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Reducing Our Dependence on Mining
The aim of this document is to make one think of how we might be able to reduce our dependence on mining in order to keep the environmental consequences to a minimum.
Reducing Our Dependence On Mining PDF
Teacher Lesson Plans
A Community is Born
This lesson plan is designed to be used in the school classroom, as a follow-up to a class trip to the Sterling Hill Mining Museum. The objective of this lesson plan is for students to experience how and why communities of people are established based on the types of employment available and the natural resources nearby, using the Sterling Hill zinc mine as an example. Students will develop a model mining community town.
Content Area: Social Studies
Grade Level(s): 3 and 4
Post Classroom Activity: A Community is Born PDF
Corresponding Map/Illustration (PDF): print size Tabloid/17¨x11¨ or Legal/14¨x8.5¨
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Following in the Footsteps of Edison
Part 1: Where’s the Iron Ore?
Students will learn how early prospectors who came to New Jersey used the magnetic properties of magnetite to find hidden deposits of iron ore by observing deflections of a compass needle from its normal orientation. Students will demonstrate that process, either outdoors on the school grounds or in their classrooms.
Content Area: History, Science, Technology
Grade Level(s): 5-12
Classroom Activity: Where’s the Iron Ore? PDF and Where’s the Iron Ore datasheet PDF
Part 2: Getting the Iron Out
Students will recreate some of the steps involved in recovering valuable metals from the ores that contain them and will become familiar with Thomas Edison’s lasting contributions to the ore processing technology.
Content Area: History, Science, Technology
Grade Level(s): 5-12
Classroom Activity: Getting the Iron Out PDF
Part 3: It’s a Blast!
Students will learn that the consistency of a solid material, whether as fine powder or large chunks, greatly affects its utility. In this activity students will practice agglomeration, the process of binding powders into larger masses more conducive to their intended use, and will learn how this process, as perfected by Thomas Edison, is still a mainstay of materials processing today.
Content Area: History, Science, Social Studies, Technology,
Grade Level(s): 5-12
Classroom Activity: It’s a Blast PDF
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Using the Earth’s Resources Wisely: Some Moral Dilemmas
Students will learn how personal lifestyle choices determine, in part, how quickly we use the Earth’s natural resources, and how their decisions affect their quality of life and that of others.
Content Area: Earth Science, Social Studies
Grade Level(s): 8-12
Classroom Activity: Using the Earth’s Resources Wisely: Some Moral Dilemmas PDF
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What’s In It? How Is It Made?
Activity 1: What’s in a Tee Shirt?
Students will learn about raw materials and technology needed to make item common to their everyday lives: a cotton tee-shirt.
Content Area: Technology, Science, History
Grade Level(s): 3-5
Classroom Activity: What’s in a Tee Shirt? PDF
Student Surveys
Previsit Surveys
Grades 3-4: Student Pre-visit Survey PDF
Grades 5-6: Student Pre-visit Survey PDF
Postvisit Surveys
Grades 3-4: Student Post-visit Survey PDF
Grades 5-6: Student Post-visit Survey PDF