Title: Minerals
Level: Middle School
Time: 20 minutes
KERA Goals: 1.12; 1.4

Objective:

Students will be aware of the amount of different kinds of minerals needed to maintain our standard of living.

Materials: Transparency of worksheet below

Background Information:

To maintain our standard of living requires the continual production of new minerals.  In fact, it requires the production of 40,000 pounds of new minerals and metals every year, for every citizen in the United States.

Those minerals provide our food, homes, schools, hospitals and factories, and the equipment and energy to make them operate.  Every day, we are surrounded by minerals that help make our lives a little easier.

 

40,000 pounds of minerals must be mined every year for every person in the United States to maintain our standard of living.

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9000 lbs.
Sand & Gravel		8500 lbs.
Stone		800 lbs.
Cement		600 lbs.
Clays		450 lbs.
Salt		1200 lbs.
other Nonmetals		1200 lbs.
Iron and Steel

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50 lbs.
Aluminum		25 lbs.
Copper		15 lbs.
Zinc		15 lbs.
Lead		35 lbs.
Other Metals

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7800 lbs.
Petroleum		5000 lbs.
Coal		5000 lbs.
Natural Gas		1/20 lb
Uranium

To Generate
Energy equivalent to 300 persons working around the clock for each U.S. Citizen

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Per Capita Consumption of Minerals
1776 vs 1991 (in pounds)

17761991
Aluminum            
Cement               
Clay                    
Coal                    
Copper               
Iron & Steel       
Lead                   
Natural Gas       
Petroleum           
Phosphate          
Potash                
Salt                     
Sand, Gravel, Stone 
Sulfur                  
Zinc                    

0
12
100
40
1
20
2
0
0
1
1
4
1,000
1
0.5

50
800
600
5,000
25
1,250
15
5,000
7,870
500
46
450
15,900
95
15

Occurrence of Resources in the U.S. -- Coal fields

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Discussion:

  1. Coal is formed from peat (decayed plants) usually in swamps.  There are four types of coal lignite, sub-bituminous, bituminous and anthracite.  Do you have coal in your state?  What type?

  2. How much coal must be mined every year for every person in the United States to maintain our standard of living?

  3. How much coal was needed per person in 1776?  Why do we need 125 times more coal per person today?  Will the amount of coal we use increase or decrease?

Adapted from the Mineral Information Institute.