Send for free single copies of materials from the American Coal Foundation. They will arrive in just a couple of weeks. Then, you can use these for the basis for a small unit study. It's not a complete unit, but can be considered supplemental to other things your child is studying.

I spread this out over a 5-week span of time so that we could incorporate it into our other curriculum. We have school 4 days a week, using the 5th day for finishing incomplete assignments, field trips, or just personal activities. What follows is the plan I used.

WEEK 1
Monday - Read "Coal-Ancient Gift Serving Modern Man"
Tuesday - Read "What Everyone Should Know About Coal"
Wednesday - Read "What Everyone Should Know About Electricity From Coal"
Thursday - Read "What Everyone Should Know About Land Reclamation"

WEEK 2
Monday - Read "Power From Coal", pages 1-10
Tuesday - Do Activities 1 and 2
Wednesday - Do Activity 3
Thursday - Do Activities 4 and 5

WEEK 3
Monday - Using the book "Coal Related Activities", begin the activity on page 2. (This activity actually covers 2 weeks for observation.)
Tuesday and Wednesday - Using the book "Coal Related Activities", do the activity on page 3.
Thursday - Using the book "Coal Related Activities", do the activity on pages 4 and 5.

WEEK 4
Monday - Using the book "Coal Related Activities", do the activity on pages 6 and 7.
Tuesday - Using the book "Coal Related Activities", do the activity on pages 8 and 9.
Wednesday - Using the book "Coal Related Activities", do the activity on pages 16-20. (Now is also the time for the page 2 project. Summarize your observations.)
Thursday - Complete your observation report and turn it in.

WEEK 5
Monday - Using the book "Coal Related Activities", do the activity on pages 21-31.
Tuesday - Using the book "Coal Related Activities", do the activity on pages 31-32.
Wednesday and Thursday - Do a Science Fair Activity. Select one that's listed in the Coal Unit curriculum.