A Sea of Yellow Hard Hats: Elementary Rockhounds Explore Roundup 2011

By Andrea Cade
Mineral Exploration Roundup 2011 Blogger

Today as you walk through the Exhibition Hall at Roundup you may see a bunch of yellow hard hats walking around.  These hard hats easily identify the 141 Grade 5 and Grade 7 students who have come to Roundup to learn more about the mineral exploration industry.

The Mineral Resources Education Program of BC (http://www.bcminerals.ca/s/home.asp) has again organized five wonderful activities to educate and interest these young Rockhounds.  They visit Yukon Dan (http://www.yukondan.com/) to learn how to gold pan and hear stories of prospecting, as well as get a presentation from an exploration geologist about what field work is like. There are rocks, fossils, microscopes, diamond exploration demonstrations and more for them to examine.

There are volunteers from industry and academia on board for “Stump the Geologist” where the kids get to ask questions and request examination of some of their rock or mineral specimens.  And the hard hats in the exhibition hall?  They're part of the “Treasure Hunt” activity.

The Treasure Hunt is led by booklets of questions for the students to ask at specific booths.  There are four versions of the booklet, each with more than 10 companies to visit.  The versions help to spread the students throughout the whole exhibition.  Everyone is involved, from government to exploration companies, suppliers to prospectors.  It's exciting to see the wide-ranging support for this program as well as the curiosity and a sense of discovery under all of those yellow hard hats.