Gold panning booth at the elementary school science fair.. Looking for suggestions.

[bobw53]

K-5th... This isn't a science fair where the kids come up with stuff.. Its the teachers and others that come up with fun stuff for the kids to do.. That is mainly educational.

I did it a year and a half ago when I was really GREEN at the gold thing.. I had less than 2 weeks to prepare and I was "asked" "nicely" to do this for my better half..
"asked" "nicely" means I was asked nicely, with an understanding of "if you say 'No', you'll pay... Dearly"... She knew I would say yes... I had done one other deal with
the kids, and I had an absolute blast.. And I even got on TV (PBS.. but its still TV)... I'd link to the vid, but apparently they take them down after 2 years.

These kids need to be educated, schooled, panned, cleaned up and in a vial in about 5-7 minutes tops. Last time, I did the panning bit, and the better half got the gold into the
vial for them... I was dealing with 3-5 kids at a time, and processed through 70-80 kids in a bit over 2 hours, and they got to take home GOLD!!!!

The lesson, and the poster GOLD is HEAVY/DENSE

I had some 3 oz Solo cups that I passed around.. one of rocks, one of dirt/sand... The kids didn't care.. Whatever... Then I passed around a cup of black sand..
"Yeah... That's a bit heavier... ".... Then THANKFULLY I'm a machinist, we use TUNGSTEN carbide inserts, and a lot of them are GOLD colored.. Tungsten is darn
near identical to the density of gold... The weight of that last cup REALLY got their attention.

I use a lot of purple and black inserts... Sorry...

I made cups to pan.. I figured it had to be fast, but it had to be easy, but it still had to show the different densities of the "dirt" the black sands and the gold.. And
it had to go QUICK!!! Finding the correct amount of black sand was though..... The measuring cup ended up being the socket end (5/16th's hex ) of a 3/8" socket head cap screw.
A heaping teaspoon of sand/dirt -40, and 8-12 pebbles so they had to stick their hands in the water/dirt and toss them out. The gold was 30 and 25 mesh... .04 grams approximately
per cup, 9-14 pieces or so... I bought 5 grams.

During that fair, my eyes never went past the kids right in front of me... When my better half finally said "LAST ROUND", I looked up... 2/3rds of the other booths where already packed
up and gone, and the other third were finishing packing up, and I still had parents and kids around me.

I was beat after that, like a red headed step child... BEAT!!!.. But it was a LOT OF FUN...

During the fair, everybody put their name in a hat and we gave away 10 "kits" the following Monday at school.. Pan, snuffer bottle, vial, and a well seeded cup of pay dirt.

Even though it was a success last time, I want to do it bigger, badder and better this time around... My folks *should* be out here at that time, and my Dad has the
"FEVER".. So I'll get some help there.. Hopefully no more than 2 kids per person... 5 at a whack was TOUGH... Some kids got it, some didn't.. 2 little kindergarten
twins.. Perfectly clean gold... 7 seconds, both of them!!!! .... Amazing...

I'm basically fishing for ideas, and ways to make it BETTER, and more fun, and hopefully more educational for the kids... I really wanted to drag in some of the local history,
but there just wasn't time... I've got to push through 80-100 kids in 2 hours.. Doesn't leave a lot of time.

I'm looking forward to it.. It WILL be fun, and I actually have a whole month to prepare this time, and I now know a lot more about gold panning. I'm just hoping y'all can help
me come up with some good ideas.


EDIT: My better half now has a reason to wear these earrings I bought for her.

 

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[fowledup]

Kudos to you! Nicely done! I was thinking maybe you could incorporate a small recirc sluic, a blue bowl, and a miller table. Let the kids feed it and see different ways of basically doing the same thing. My grandkids love to feed the sluice. Again thank you for what your doing!!!!!!!

 

[Hoser John]

For demos we used a water trough for animals to pan in, cement mixing tubs(much easier) and even a old satellite dish. I've done many 100s of school demos and they love to just pan, get wet and have a ball. We used to have a dedicated crew up here that did at least 1-3 a week for many years. Old time clothes and no shave brings a bit of the real to it. A story board with pics on it helps as visual aids really amps up the excitement. If your close to Redding(northern calif) I have a dozen or so pans extra for kid use I use in classes-free to use-John

 

[ratled]

Where are you at, perhaps some from here can help
ratled

 

[motohed]

Sounds like it would be great fun , I enjoy teaching children stuff , Iv'e done mechanical classes and some welding classes . It would be fun to do a Gold paning class .

 

[bobw53]

Where are you at, perhaps some from here can help
ratled

Las Cruces, NM...

And my Dad just sent me this... How to Look Like a Gold Miner (with Pictures)

 

[ratled]

Too far for me, others maybe?

ratled

Las Cruces, NM...

And my Dad just sent me this... How to Look Like a Gold Miner (with Pictures)

 

[bobw53]

Time to buy some gold... I'm thinking 6 grams in the 25 mesh range should cover it... Anybody have a better place than E-bay?

 

[QNCrazy]

Here is a back saver for you. Our club uses the horse bunk feeders from Tractor Supply. They're 3' tall and 5' or 10' long, you choose. Just plug the drain hole with a bolt and silicone. We used to use the mortar tubs on tables which wore us out real quick.

 

[bobw53]

Here is a back saver for you. Our club uses the horse bunk feeders from Tractor Supply. They're 3' tall and 5' or 10' long, you choose. Just plug the drain hole with a bolt and silicone. We used to use the mortar tubs on tables which wore us out real quick.

I used bus pans from the restaurant supply store.. We do this inside, and they were nice enough to give me the booth right at the janitor closet so I was close to the water. We aren't using a lot of dirt, each kid gets maybe
2 teaspoons worth... Just enough to show them how it works, and let them take home some shiny stuff. They did good last year, I panned the dirt in the tubs, and they lost about 4%, and I can pretty well point to the
kids that lost it.