Room 5 & 6 found 150 grams of gold!

On August 17th, Room 5 and 6 made their way to the lab to learn how to pan gold like they did back in the 1860's. We did other activities to do with the Otago gold rush occurring in the mid 1860s such as various reading tasks on the tough conditions Chinese miners had to go through.

We watched a video on panning gold and then went straight into it! There were lots of failed attempts but in total Room five and six found a total 150 grams of gold.

Panning the gold was simple, although it was a long process. It was basically just putting rocks in a pan, adding water and gradually sifting the rocks out from the gold. Gold is heavier than the rest of the rock dust mixture and so it stays at the bottom. With this basic knowledge we took over the world.

By Max Turner