More than once in the past year and a half, newscasts from the sites of fatal coal mine accidents have riveted the nation’s attention. Recently, the New York Times reported on an investigator’s findings that a federal agency failed to conduct required safety inspections in many U.S. coal mines during this time.
We can assume that no mining company wants an accident to occur. Companies are run by human beings who are aware of the ties workers have with their families and who know the importance of their workers’ livelihood and safety to their families. Furthermore, coal mining accidents tend to have a negative impact on company image and financial status. Similarly, presumably no government agency or its employees wishes for mining accidents.
So what might account for any increases or decreases in the frequency of accidents in coal mines? Consider first the following finding: According to the NY Times article dated November 18, 2007, Report Cites Mine-Safety Agency Failures, the “number of agency inspectors had fallen to 496 in 2006, from 605 in 2002, an 18 percent decline, while the amount of underground mining activity had increased by 9 percent.” That information certainly sets the stage for potential accident situations to go unnoticed.
The article identifies several allegedly incomplete inspections that were recorded as complete and paints an unflattering picture of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration
. The question remains as to whether the apparent incompetence of that agency is responsible for the coal mine tragedies. What responsibility do mining companies and their employees, such as engineers and the miners themselves, hold?
How to Turn This News Event into an Inquiry-Based, Standards-Related Science Lesson
The NY Times article obviously has political implications in addition to its potential for discussion of the science of mining, related engineering concepts, and society’s dependence on fossil fuel. It provides a contextual example of how science and politics go hand in hand; another reminder that science does not happen in a vacuum, but is done within the parameters set by society. The National Science Education Standards domains of Science in Personal and Social Perspectives and Science and Technology are thus closely tied to this article’s topic of coal mine safety.
Ask students whose fault is it when a coal mine shaft collapses and workers’ lives are lost? Make a list on the board of possible responsible parties and exactly what their responsibilities might be. That list can run from the president and other officers of a mining company to geologists, engineers and miners, to government agency officials, to members of Congress, all the way to private citizens dependent on coal.
Share with the students the statistics reported in the article. What is their reaction? What else would they like to know? Do they detect any bias? What do students think a mining engineer might do for a living? What do students believe to be the main safety concerns in coal mining? Is coal dust a consideration? The inherent geology of the mine site? The structural integrity of any shafts? The technology used to remove coal?
Here are some additional resources that are part of the NSDL Middle School Portalcollection to facilitate your instruction regarding science and society, technology and engineering: Frames, Discover Engineering, Kids Design Network and Energy Consumption.
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This topic holds tremendous potential for connecting with other subjects, including language arts, writing, art, social studies. Things that come immediately to mind are the role of coal mining in the U.S. and in other parts of the world. How did the discovery of coal and development of coal mines contribute to growth of towns and then later to their decline? What about the culture of “mining towns”? Do coal mines and mining practices differ across the globe, not only in the technological aspect, but the social aspect?
From an art standpoint, there is a rich history of music coming from the mining experience, both in the U.S. and abroad. The South African group, Ladysmith Black Mambazo (http://www.mambazo.com/biography.html) emerged as a social group out of the South African diamond mines.