Day 4 of my GATEI experience has been a real benefit for my teaching journey.  The Red Hill Clay Mine is not like the mines of the West Virginia or Eastern Kentucky. When one considers the other types of mining (Strip Mining) which is the type done at Red Hills, I found out that it is totally different.  It is not stripping the land but reclaiming it for the benefit for the environment for Future Generations.

It was like living in a land of giants with all the large machinery. But with this operation it must produce a great amount of coal for the Red Hill Power Plant.  Supply and demand was really brought out with our tour but reclaiming the land had much to do with the purpose of our tour.
It's not about stripping it and leaving as happened through the 20th Century.

A great activity was presented to us by Bryan Mattison which gave us an understanding of  Porosity,
Permeability, and Moisture Retention.  The Lab work was very informative and much of our findings were surprising. The goal of this Mining cooperation is to meet the supply for energy but to also reclaim and help the environment.  Great Activities and lesson plan on this ://teachcoal.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/CoalActivitySecondary.pdf