Panning for 'gold' in river sediment

Have you tried the Earthlearningidea, 'Gold prospectors'?

In this activity pupils are Iinvestigating how prospectors use the property of density to search for gold in river sediments. By doing this ELI, pupils develop motor skills as they experiment with the best method of separating materials; they can explain why density is a useful property in the separation of materials and can use their imaginations to visualise a real gold prospector in the field.
Another Earthlearningidea which used density of minerals for separation is 'Jigging'

This is a simple practical activity used to separate minerals of different density from each other. It is a small scale version of a method which was used for centuries.
Search the website for more ELIs about minerals and density.