Topic: Mineral resources in Poland

Written by: Magdalena Jankun

Target group

Seventh‑grade student of primary school

Core curriculum

IX. The natural environment of Poland on the European background: geographical position of Poland; influence of tectonic movements and glaciations on the sculpture of Europe and Poland; transitional climate of Poland; Baltic Sea; the main Polish rivers and their systems against the rivers of Europe and their systems; main types of soils in Poland; forests in Poland; natural heritage of Poland, mineral resources of Poland.

Student:

15) indicate locations of major mineral resources of Poland on a map, and give an overview of their economic significance;

16) assume shared responsibility for condition of the natural environment of Poland.

Purpose of the lesson

Students divide mineral resources to categories and discuss their locations in Poland.

Conditions to be met to succeed

• to divide mineral resources to correct categories;

• to indicate locations of mineral resources on an economic map of Poland;

• to give examples how resources are used in different types of human activities;

• to justify a need to manage resources reasonably.

Key competences

• communication in native language;

• communication in non‑native language;

• mathematical competences;

• IT competences;

• ability to learn;

• social and civic competences.

Methods/forms of work

A mental map method, work with text and multimedia and work with a map.

Individual work and work in groups.

Teaching accessories

• an abstract;

• electronic coursebook;

• an interactive or traditional writing board;

• a multimedia projector;

• tablets/computers;

• a physical map of Poland;

• an economic map of Poland;

• geographical atlases;

• videos available on the internet.

Stages of the lesson

Introduction

1. The teacher provides a topic and a purpose of the lesson as well as conditions to be met to succeed.

2. The teacher asks students to get familiar with introductive fragments of the abstract and to explain the terms: “natural wealth” and “mineral resources”.

Realization

1. The teachers orders students to use an interactive board and a mental map method to present division of mineral resources with regard to their employment in economy (energy resources, metallic resources, chemical resources, and rock resources).

2. The students analyze in the geographical atlas the map on occurrence and extraction of raw materials in Poland. Students determine the groups these deposits belong to (e.g. brown coal, mined in Konin, belongs to energy resources).

3. The teacher displays the application „Mineral resources in Poland”, available in the e‑textbook.

Volunteers or students selected by the teacher, choose the appropriate application layers, describe the locations of major mineral deposits in Poland.

4. The teacher divides the class to four teams. Each of them gets a random paper with a different group of resources.

Students perform the following tasks, using various sources and a geographical atlas:

• to provide examples of resources included in assigned group of mineral resources;

• to describe distinct traits of each resource;

• to determine their locations;

• to give examples how such resources are used in human activities.

5. As the time limit defined by the teacher runs out, representatives of groups show the results to the class. At the wall map of Poland, they indicate locations of resources.

6. The teacher asks students whether they know how mining brown coal in an open‑pit mine is performed. Next, he/she presents a material from the e‑coursebook, showing a mine
in Bełchatów.

7. The teacher displays a part of video footage showing a black coal mining in Poland, e.g. a film titled „Zabytkowa Kopalnia Węgla Kamiennego GUIDO”.

8. Students perform an interactive single‑choice exercise: to determine the type of a mine displayed in the picture.

9. Next, they write an answer to the question: why do we have to use mineral resources reasonably? A volunteer or a student indicated by the teacher presents his/her answer to the class.

Summary

1. Students perform interactive exercises:

• to name mineral resources displayed in pictures;

• to determine which mineral resources belong to a specific group;

2. The teacher evaluates efforts of students during the lesson, considering their commitment and individual abilities.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Mineral resources in Poland

Natural wealth includes all components of natural environment which are useful for human. Their division is as follows:

• renewable resources – have the ability to regenerate, such as forests, water, wind energy;

• non‑renewable – these are consumed by human in a rate preventing them from regeneration (if at all possible), such as mineral resources.

Mineral resources are rocks extracted under ground or at the surface. People use it for variety of economic purposes, such as fuel or construction materials. They are also used in processing industry, for example, metal ores in metalworking or sulphur in chemical industry. Depending on application, mineral resources were divided to several major categories:

• energy resources (fuels) – black coal, brown coal, petroleum, natural gas;

• metallic resources – metal ores, e.g. iron, copper, zinc, lead, tin or aluminium (bauxites);

• chemical resources – rock salt, potassium salts, phosphorites, sulphur, coals, petroleum, natural gas;

• rock resources (construction materials) – sand, gravel, limestone, marlstone, dolomite, marble, granite, gypsum and many others.

Mineral resources are non‑renewable wealth which means their supplies will eventually be exhausted. Some resources will be available for hundreds of years, some may run out within tens of years. Human should try to use them reasonably while aspiring to substitute them with renewable resources. This problem mostly involves energy resources, thus inspiring development of more and more wind power plants, hydropower plants or solar power plants. Also, biofuel production keeps rising. It contributes to improvement of natural environment purity.

The Earth hides in itself an abundance of various rocks and minerals. However, human only gathers the ones which are concentrated in a single location in a sufficient amount or in a readily available place, meaning at low depth. Such concentration of useful minerals and rocks, available for extraction, is called a mineral deposit.

Poland is a country with quite a lot of mineral resources. We have at least a few resources available in each category:

• energy resources – black coal and brown coal as well as natural gas and - to a lesser extent - petroleum;

• metallic resources – copper ores and zinc and lead ores; also iron ores (currently out of operation);

• chemical resources – rock salt as well as potassium salts (currently out of operation) and sulphur;

• rock resources – sand, gravel, clay, silt, sandstone, limestone, dolomite, gypsum, chalk, granite, basalt, marble, porphyry, melaphyr, serpentinite, amphibolite and many others.

Some mineral deposits are not easily operated. Nowadays, cost effectiveness is primary factor, therefore, extraction of a specific resource in certain location needs to be profitable. In the late 90s, for example, black coal extraction in the Lower Silesia became unrewarding. Earlier, the same happened with iron ores which have been extracted in our highlands until the 70s.

Currently, the most meaningful resources in Poland are as follows:

• black coal extracted in the Upper Silesia and the Lublin region – it is used for fuelling heat plants and households and as a raw material in chemical industry and in metalworking for production of steel (being its ingredient, as steel is an alloy of iron and coal);

• brown coal extracted in the Bełchatów‑Konin‑Turoszów triangle – its majority is being burnt in power plants located near the mines (transporting brown coal at longer distances is not cost‑effective);

• copper ores extracted in the Legnica and Głogów region (Lubin, Polkowice) – these ores are smelted in foundries (in Legnica and Głogów) to pure copper; copper products are mainly sold to foreign countries; copper ore processing results in gathering some other metals, such as cobalt, molybdenum, nickel, gold and silver which is being sold, bringing significant revenue.

Among other natural resources present in Poland, natural gas deserves some attention. It is being extracted in Greater Poland, Subcarpathia and Pomerania. It satisfies about 40% of domestic demand, the rest is imported from the Russian Federation. Situation concerning petroleum looks much worse - as much as 97% is being imported (mainly from the Russian Federation).

With regard to metallic resources, apart from copper, we also extract zinc and lead ores in the Olkusz region. An important chemical resource is rock salt, and the largest deposit is located in Kuyavia and the seashore (renowned mines in Wieliczka and Bochnia are merely tourist attractions). Sulphur, extracted near Tarnobrzeg, is also of some importance with regard to the industry. You should note that Poland is the last country in the world where so‑called native sulphur excretes from underground. Internationally, this resource is gather by other methods, such as desulphurisation of natural gas, petroleum purification, extraction from gases arising in the progress of coal combustion, from foundry gases, and also from volcanic gases and rocks as well as from pyrite, gypsum and anhydrite.

• Mineral resources are non‑renewable natural wealth.

• Mineral resources are divided to a few major categories – energy resources, mineral resources, chemical resources, and rock resources (construction materials). Another category includes noble metals and gemstones.

• The most important mineral resources of Poland include black coal, brown coal, copper ores and rock resources. Also, natural gas, zinc and lead ores, rock salt and sulphur are of significant importance.

• Human universally uses mineral resources in the industry, and - upon processing - in everyday life.