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Lesson · Grade 6 · Applied Design, Skills and Technologies

Metals Are Non-Renewable: Mining, Using and Recycling

  • Grade 6
  • Applied Design, Skills and Technologies
  • 1 min 18 s
  • British Columbia
  • BC6-AD-28

A diagram builds up step by step. Ore formed over millions of years is mined from the ground, a furnace gets the metal out, and the metal is made into a can, a wire and a pan, while the lumps of ore in the ground run low and the ore is labelled non-renewable. Used metal then either goes to a landfill and is wasted, or goes round a recycling loop (1 collect, 2 sort, 3 melt) back into new metal again and again, so less ore is mined and the scene ends on the recap that recycling makes metals last.

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In one sentence

The question this lesson answers

Where does the metal in a can, a wire or a pan come from?

Most metals come from ores, which are rocks in the ground that contain metal.

Transcript

What the lesson says

Where does the metal in a can, a wire or a pan come from?

Most metals come from ores, which are rocks in the ground that contain metal.

Ores took millions of years to form.

Mining digs the ore out of the ground.

Then the metal is separated from the rock, often by heating it in a furnace.

The metal is made into things like cans, wires and pans.

Each time we mine, less ore is left in the ground.

New ore forms far too slowly to replace it, so metals are a non-renewable resource.

Metal that is thrown away usually ends up in a landfill, where it is wasted.

Recycling collects used metal, sorts it and melts it down.

The melted metal is made into new products.

Many metals can be recycled again and again.

Recycling means less ore has to be mined, so the ore lasts longer.

Metals are non-renewable, so recycling them makes them last longer.

Curriculum

Where this fits

British Columbia, Grade 6

Applied Design, Skills and Technologies, Metalwork: metals as a non-renewable resourceBC6-AD-28

British Columbia, Grade 7

Applied Design, Skills and Technologies, Metalwork: metals as a non-renewable resourceBC7-AD-26

This lesson is also listed in Grade 7.

The outcomes and strands follow the British Columbia curriculum.

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