Resources - Education

Welcome to our DIY Activities page where you will find games, crafts, engineering challenges and more! Mining Matters relies on the support of individuals, corporations and organizations to develop activities like the ones you see here. If you would like to support our initiatives and make a donation, please visit our donation page.

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Grow Your Own Crystals

An image of a cluster of halite crystals on a black background.
Have fun growing your very own crystals of Halite (salt), an evaporite mineral, at home.

Build a Mine

Using recycled materials you have in your home, follow these steps to build your own underground mine!

Introduction to Mining

Surface Mine
Learn about the mining process and make a creative poster to show your understanding.

Recycling Rocks and Minerals

recyling-rocks
If it’s not grown, it’s mined. Learn what to do with familiar things when they’re no longer useful.

Can't find items at home? Try our Kahoot! game here or for a challenge try this version.

Rock Story Drama

Rock Cycle Poster_crop
Unleash your inner star with this creative drama activity.

Conveyor Belt Challenge

conveyor belt

Mining Matters is challenging you to solve the problem of moving “ore” 30 cm with
a conveyor belt!

Underground Mining Methods

What happens in an underground mine?

Watch these videos to find out, then try this activity.

Activity - Concern - Solution

Activity-Concern-Solution
Play this matching game and learn about the impacts of mining activities on the environment and the innovative solutions used to minimize the impacts.

Starburst Rock Cycle

Use Starburst to explore the rock cycle in a tasty hands on way!

Headframe Engineering Challenge

Test your engineering skills with this challenge. How many marbles will your Headframe lift?

Operating a Surface Mine

Operating a Surface Mine
Plan your own surface mine, consider how you will extract your resource and how you will reclaim the area after.

Here are the Mine Site Reclamation photographs for step 6.

Rocks and Minerals Every Day

calcite-toothpaste
Try this activity to see how rocks and minerals are used in your life each day. Here is one to get you started: the mineral calcite is used in toothpaste!

Mineral Mates!

mineralmates
Learn about diamond, halite and beryl and create their crystal shape with these paper crafts.

Water Filtration Challenge

Mines use water in different ways. Water treatment after it is used is important to mines. In this activity, you are challenged to design and build a water filtration system, using common materials.

Stone, Sand and Gravel

Mining Crushed Stone, Sand and Gravel
Play a Uses of Crushed Stone, Sand, and Gravel Bingo game and then try the Crushed Stone, Sand and Gravel Matching Game.

Use our online caller for the bingo game found here!

Soil Design Challenge

Learn about soil and build your own soil profile!

Don't have blocks? Check out MakerBrane and build online.

Rocks and Crafts for All Ages

Grab your favourite rock or mineral and turn it into a beautiful craft.

Cookie Mining

Cookie Mining
Operate your own chocolate chip cookie mine. Take a picture and post it on Instagram #cookiemining

Mining Comes to Ogimokwe

Mining Comes to Ogimokwe
Learn about how a mining operation might affect an Indigenous community. Consider the different perspectives each character has towards mining on their traditional territories.

Rock and Mineral Concentration

Rock and Mineral Concentration
Test your memory and knowledge of rocks and minerals with this concentration game.

Don't have a printer? Try our online version here.

Product Life Cycle Research

Product Life Cycle
Learn about the materials and energy used to make, use, and dispose of your stuff!

Music from the Earth Quiz Game

Cover Image-Music from the Earth
Do you like music? Learn how Mining Makes it Happen!

Then challenge yourself with our Kahoot! quiz game.

Creating a Mining Playlist

Play List
Compose a song using mining words! Then design the playlist cover art for your song.

A Paste with a Taste

A Paste with a Taste
Did you brush your teeth today? Did you know that minerals are used to make toothpaste? Make your own with this activity.

Different Volcanoes

Learn about different types of volcanoes with this explosive experiment!

Can't find film canisters? Try mini Play-Doh containers, snap together Easter eggs, or any small container with a tight fitting snap on lid.

Career BINGO

Heavy Duty Mechanic
Play a game of BINGO while also learning about different careers in the mining industry.

Human Water Cycle

River
Explore the water cycle as a water droplet with this online game.

Edible Earth Layers

Try this tasty activity, and create a cross section model of the Earth's layers.

Post a picture of your on Instagram before you eat it! #edibleearthlayers

Fossilize!

Fossilize
Compete with your family to be the first to become a fossil with this board game.

Oreo Plate Tectonics

Oreo Plate Tectonics
Play with your food, while exploring plate tectonics!

Toilet Tissue Timeline

Toilet Paper
How old is the Earth? When did dinosaurs live? Find out with this Toilet Tissue Timeline!

Share a picture of your timeline on Instagram #toilettissuetimeline

Folding and Faulting

Folding and Faulting!? What is that? Learn how these bends form in rocks using Play-Doh®.

We would love to see your Play-Doh® folds and faults, post them on Instagram #foldingandfaulting