Travels with Charlie: WEST VIRGINIA Coal Experiment {Booking Across the USA}

I was provided with a complimentary review copy of Down South; however, all opinions are my own.

Many thanks to my dear friend and West Virginia native J. Pearce for allowing me to share her beautiful pictures here.

West Virginia holds a special place in my heart.  When I was small, my grandparents bought a summer home there, and as I grew up we spent many vacations at their cabin out in the country.  My sister and I passed many happy hours reading in the hammock, helping in the garden, picking blackberries, and mapping imaginary worlds out in the woods.

Photo courtesy of J. Pearce

Photo courtesy of J. Pearce

It is difficult to exaggerate how beautiful West Virginia is.  When my brother married, it was no surprise that he and his bride-to-be wanted the wedding to take place at the West Virginia home.  The ceremony was outdoors, in front of the cabin, set against the backdrop of the woods and the rolling hills.

Photo courtesy of J. Pearce

We live on the West Coast now, and my grandparents sold the cabin years ago, so I was glad for the opportunity to introduce my son to West Virginia through the Travels with Charlie book on the Southeastern states, Down South from Blue Apple Books.

Down South is part of a series of books for young children about the states of the US.  Since Monkey loves maps (and I love teaching him about geography), I knew he would love this book, and he does!  He frequently asks to read his “Charlie book” and loves poring over the pages.  The books are so cute and creative – each state is featured with fun facts plus a map with cartoon renderings of the main state attractions.  Best of all is trying to find the dog Charlie hidden on each map!

One of the aspects featured on the West Virginia map is coal.  For good or for ill, West Virginia’s modern history has been powerfully shaped by the coal industry, and continues to be today.

Monkey loves geology (thank you, Magic School Bus!), so I decided that our extension activity would be a science experiment about how coal is created.

There are many versions of this experiment out there, but I found this tutorial very easy to follow, plus it was designed for just two weeks (as opposed to the four weeks required in others).  I’m sure the results would have been even better over four weeks, but I was still happy with how this turned out.

You can find all the instructions on the original post, but basically the experiment is about seeing how leaves, ferns, and twigs decompose, to get a glimpse of how fossils and coal are formed.

We left our leaves and ferns to rot for 14 days.  Here is how they fared:

At the end of the 14 days, I said it was time to explore the decomposed materials.  Monkey was a bit hesitant to poke around in the icky sand, but he warmed up quickly, and I had to keep Baby from plunging his little arm in up to his shoulder.  As I mentioned before, I’m sure you could observe more profound change over a longer period of time, but even over just the two weeks it was easy to see how the leaves (but not as much the ferns!) had started to decompose.  We were also able to observe how the plants left imprints on the damp sand, opening up a discussion of fossil formation.

This was a fun way to learn about geology, and Monkey had fun checking on our “sand experiment” as it progressed.

Have you ever visited West Virginia?

I am so excited to be taking part in the Booking Across USA Project, put together by the amazing Jodie of Growing Book by Book.

For more details and to enter the giveaway, visit the main Booking Across the USA page.  Be sure to also visit the other participants in the series for fun crafts and activities for all 50 states:

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