Activities for secondary schools

Educational workshop “Coal, fossil fuel”

• Modalities: in sub-groups of 20 students
• Location: educational workshop
• Duration: 1h30

The workshop enables you to uncover concepts such as the discovery of a coal deposit. It also enables you to understand the choice of the location of the operating sites as well as the economic aspects thanks to a videogram presenting the various uses of coal.

The workshop also enables students to observe coke samples, to study a document on the evolution of coal productivity and on the number of miners present in the Lorraine Coal Basin from 1856 to 2004.

What is the plant-based origin of coal, its genesis?These questions will be answered by observing coal samples, fossiliferous shales, replicas of the Lorraine Coal Basin along with its swamps and flora.

Guided tour “The mining of a coal deposit and its environmental implications”

• Modalities: in sub-groups of 20 students
• Location: The Wendel Mine
• Duration: 1h30

Understanding how geologists have adapted to the structure of the Sarro-Lorraine deposit to mine coal. This visit to the mine enables students to discover the layout of coal veins in the subsoil, the mining techniques that depend on the dip and nature of these veins, and the environmental consequences of mining.

Self-guided tour of the Wendel Miners Museum

• Modalities: in sub-groups of 20 students
• Location: the Wendel Miners Museum
• Duration: 1 hour

Discussing the history of technological progress in the 20th century, the Glorious Thirties, immigration and the building of Europe.Students fill in a questionnaire individually, enabling them to discover the Wendel Miners Museum.  

“The Wendel Complex: use of a productive area in Lorraine” guided tour

• Modalities: in sub-groups of 20 students
• Location: Explor Wendel Park and educational workshop (side activity offered in case of bad weather)
• Duration: 1h30

Case studies of a productive area. Students visit the mine complex to understand how this productive industrial area became a tourist and recreational site.

• Modalities: in sub-groups of 20 students
• Duration: 1 hour

The testimonial meetings with a former miner immerse the visitor in the daily lives and work of miners through an authentic account and anecdotes. Students can prepare questions in advance and interact with the miner during this activity.

On foot or by bus, take your students on a tour to discover the history of the mining towns of Petite-Rosselle, built by mining companies between the mid-19th century and the 1960s. Detached and semi-detached workers’ houses, engineers’ and employees’ houses, dormitories, hospitals, director’s buildings… this is what you will see as you visit the various estates known as “Wendel Nord”, “Wendel Sud”, “Leyenne” and “Urselsbach”.