This lesson focuses on the twin imperatives of a mining engineer: get as much copper out of the earth while spending the least amount of money and making the smallest impact on the environment as possible. This lesson flows most naturally from the previous one, “A Peek Below,” but the basic concepts from that lesson will be very briefly reviewed for teachers unable to attend both sessions. In this lesson, teachers will review mathematical formulas and principles for describing area, volume, mass, density, and concentration and apply these concepts to design a mine that maximizes profits for its investors while minimizing the impact on the environment. This lesson requires at least a 6th-grade proficiency in math but is adaptable all the way through calculus.
