Unearthing the role of minerals throughout history
Join UArizona professor Isabel Barton as she travels back in time to ancient societies in the Africa, Europe, America, and Asia to explore the surprising ways in which mineral resources shaped the course of history. In the video series „How Minerals Made Civilization“, 10- to 15-minutes educational and entertaining narrations varying anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes illuminate the roles of gold, iron, steel, and other mineral resources in former centuries.
Non-renewable resource use through time has long been a special field of interest for Barton, so much so that she started to teach a general-education class on the topic. Barton: “Mineral resources don’t get much attention from historians, but they’re really the material basis of civilizations. Around the world, it’s tools and technologies made from minerals that have shaped the course of history for any given society.”
By the end of July 2022, 14 videos have been published and will continue to go live every two weeks through the end of the year. Highlights of the series include how mineral resource extraction influenced World War II and the role of gold in ancient Egypt. Isabel Barton is a self-proclaimed history buff, and we can expect to see a countless number of civilizations highlighted in the series.
A research-intense endeavor
In order to formulate the videos, Barton spends days, sometimes weeks doing research on a given topic, collaborating with David Killick, professor of Anthropology and Materials Science and Engineering, and with Geosciences professor Mark Barton to find reliable sources. She often has to cut out 2/3rds or more of a script to cut a video down to an approachable size. Viewers who are curious to learn more about the topics being talked about or are interested in her sources, can email her for more information.
Combining live and asynchronous learning
In her gen-ed course being offered again in Fall 2022 “Nonrenewable Resources and World Civilizations,” she teaches students from different backgrounds the importance of mineral resources in history. Many of the video topics are covered more comprehensively in her class. While many of the current viewers of the series are people in the mining and geoscience fields, Barton encourages non-scientists to watch the videos too. She hopes to teach about science in an approachable way for people who may be intimidated by science in more formal contexts.
Find the playlist “How Minerals Made Civilization” on the YouTube channel of the School of Mining and Mineral Resources.
General Education Course ANTH 201/MNE 201 Nonrenewable Resources and World Civilizations
For course description, refer to course catalog.