Background Notes

All industries have unique people, jobs and tools associated with them. Mining is no exception. In this lesson, students can become familiar with unusual terms they will hear in the Michigan Historical Museum's "Mining in Michigan" gallery, such as kibble or tram. You can introduce them to two people important in our mining history, William A. Burt and Douglass Houghton. They can also explore the many different meanings of words-such as vein or shaft-to find out how they became used as they are in mining.

Objectives

• Students will recognize 12 words associated with Michigan mining history.
• Students will associate mining terms with their meanings or uses.

Michigan Educational Assessment Program Social Studies Content Standards

This lesson presents an opportunity to address, in part, these standards:

• SOC.I.2. Comprehending the Past. All students will understand narratives about major eras of American and world history by identifying the people involved, describing the setting, and sequencing the events.
• SOC.IV.4 Business Choices. All students will explain how a free market economic system works, as well as other economic systems, to coordinate and facilitate the exchange, production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
  

Materials Needed

Mining Word Search puzzle activity sheet (PDF, Adobe Acrobat Reader required), pencils.

Directions

List words from the Word Search on the chalkboard and discuss their meanings with students. Distribute the Word Search puzzle and allow students to complete the exercise.

Questions for Discussion or Research

1. Learn more about Michigan's first state geologist, Douglass Houghton. What were some of his other accomplishments?
2. Read about William A. Burt. Tell about his inventions, including the solar compass and an early typewriter.

At the Museum

• Find and identify these objects in the mining galleries: kibble, pickax, solar compass, tram.
• Stand in the mine and look up the shaft. Do you feel as though you are deep in the ground? Talk about whether you would want to work hundreds or thousands of feet underground.
• Find things that Native Americans made from copper in the archaeology exhibit (across from the Woodland Diorama).

Vocabulary

See the word search puzzle (PDF, Adobe Acrobat Reader required).

References

• Burt, John S. (1985). They Left Their Mark: William Austin Burt and His Sons. Rancho Cordova, CA: Landmark Enterprises.
• Dunbar, Willis F., and May, George S. (1980). Michigan: A History of the Wolverine State, Revised Edition. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

Michigan Historical Center, Department of History, Arts and Libraries
Use and Reproduction Information [PDF]
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