Classroom Resources

Before enjoying your visit at the Museum, we invite you to learn more about minerals and the mining industry to prepare your students. These resources tap into the Museum’s archives of source documents and aural histories to enable you to bring the social and environmental history of Britannia into the classroom.

Video Resources

Groundbreaking - all grades

Our 15 minute award winning movie on Britannia tells the story of how Britannia went from discovery to the largest copper mine in the British Empire. It also tells the story of how the environment was impacted by mining activity and how that impact has been reversed.

Virtual Tunnel Walkthrough – all grades

This 3D map was created using a hand held laser. The mining industry uses this technology to accurately map working mines. Decisions on mine operations can then be made without entering the mine itself.

This video was kindly created for us courtesy of 3D Laser Mapping Ltd.

EPCOR Britannia Mine Water Treatment Plant – all grades

This 2.3 minute video produced for EPCOR talks about the company’s role in the water treatment process as well as the positive impact the Mine’s remediation has had on the community.

Classroom Activities

Stakeholders: The Mining Game Grades 5+
In Stakeholders, players take on the role of mining companies as they address real-world based challenges faced in the mining industry today and in doing so discover mining is about far more than simply digging a resource out of the ground.

Connecting with the Past Grades 4-8
Use this exercise to have your students imagine working at Britannia and writing a letter home describing work in this isolated resource town.

Explore our Story Grades 4-5
Discover some of the highs and lows Britannia experienced through this short story of our history, then find key names and terms from our story in the included word search.

In Their Own Words
Introduce what it was like to live and work at Britannia to your class with one or more of the following topics:

  • Minorities at Britannia: Explore what it was like to be a visible minority at Britannia. Suitable for Grades 5-6.
  • Social Structure: Discover some aspects of living in a company town. Suitable for grades 5-6.
  • Women at Britannia: In Britannia's time, the roles of women were limited. What was this like for the women that lived it? Explore this and how times have changed. Suitable for grades 4-6.
  • Women Underground: Perhaps the biggest social change to come to mining in the past century is the allowance of women to work in the mines. Examine a source document that marks the beginning of this change in attitudes towards women in mining. Suitable for grades 4-6.

Britannia's Environmental Journey

Britannia went from meeting all the environmental standards of its time while in operation to becoming one of the worst industrial pollution points in North America following its closure before the clean-up began. What happened? Explore the changing environmental standards as well as the issues between government and landowners that caused Britannia’s deterioration.
  • Britannia 1918 to New Prosperity 2014 – Grades 5-7
    Compare and contrast how attitudes towards the environment changed over the past century with a look at the acceptable practices of Britannia in 1918 and the requirements put forth for the proposed New Prosperity mine in 2014.
  • Government Legislation – Grades 7 +
    Have your students examine how BC’s environmental laws have changed since their first introduction in the 1960s. Are our laws strong enough? Are they too strong? Ask them to answer this question by researching a current environmental issue in mining.
  • The Missing Years – Grades 10 +
    While Britannia was in operation and for the first four years following closure it was in compliance with the environmental laws of the day. What followed was twenty years of disputes and inaction that led to Britannia being known for its pollution more than its mining history.

    This paper presents a narrative of what happened during the last three decades of last century along with the source documents. Use Britannia’s environmental story as a case study or select a part of the story to complement your own lesson plan.