Role play - Risks and benefits of salt mining Key Stage 4

This resource includes role play cards, a student summary note sheet and a PowerPoint introducing the activity and explaining each part. The activity works well with high and middle ability students. It is great for an observation because the teacher is just the facilitator, the students teach themselves.
The aim of the activity is to make a decision as to whether a salt mine should be allowed in the area of Cellerton - a fictional town. There are 8 roles but some roles can be combined to adapt the activity to the size of the group. Allocate the roles but take care with who is allocated the role of chair - Melvin/Maria Harris as they will be controlling the meeting. Students work in small groups of the same role to prepare their arguments for the meeting and make a name tag. They then are allocated into larger groups with one person from each role to conduct the discussion. Students have a deadline to meet with a decision and to make a statement to the press - the rest of the class - plenary part 1. Students then step out of role to consider what their own choice would be and discuss. Finally a metacognitive discussion about behaviours that helped to reach a decision and behaviours that hindered the group work could be carried out. Homework involves writing a newspaper article to summarise ideas.
This activity could be adapted for other types of mining quite easily.