Cookie Fossil Dig

Can your students work with the precision and patience needed by a paleontologist on a fossil dig?

Provide each student with a chocolate chip cookie, a toothpick and a small paintbrush.  See who can remove the most unscathed chocolate chips without breaking the cookie!

You might want to have your students try a few different types of cookies - are the chips easier to remove from crisp cookies or soft, chewy cookies?

I did this simple, paleontologist cookie dig with students at our library during a summer program, which was perfect for the age group I was working with (3 - 10).  However, I've also done cookie mining with middle school students.  Women in Mining provides a fantastic activity that includes a financial aspect (students are given a budget and have to purchase their cookie, mining tools, mining time and reclamation costs) in addition to precision.  I've mentioned it before, but it's worth repeating... take some time to check out the other activities on the Women in Mining website - they're really well done!

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Minerals: Website and Resources

The Mineral Information Institute has many resources available for your mineral and mining instruction.  The above graphic is one such piece of fascinating information.  (Here's the printable baby.)

The information is based around the central theme that minerals and natural resources are necessary for life and in fact find their way into nearly every aspect of our lives.  A Bright Smile from Toothpaste & Minerals  and How Many Minerals Does it take to Make a Light Bulb? are great examples of minerals found in places your students might not expect. 

Head to the Individual Lessons and Graphics page and start clicking - you'll find many titles that catch your eye. 

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Comparing Crystals

Note: I'm including this activity, even though I continue to struggle to get it to work myself.  I like the idea, and know that crystals can be grown from each of the following solutions, even if I can't grow them.  I can grow great Borax and Alum crystals.  The rest of them... not so good.  If anyone has any advice, please pass it my way. 

When leading a study of minerals, you'll talk about the repeating crystal structure of minearls.  Unfortunately, most mineral samples (especially those found in the classroom) don't provide students with the opportunity to see those crystals and the different shapes they can be. 

Consider making up a set of crystal sticks so students can see some of the different shapes crystals can take on.

Here's how you do it:

Make a super-saturated solution* of any of these solids in water:

--Table salt

--Rock salt

--Sugar

--Epsom salts

--Borax

--Baking soda

--Alum

Place a length of pipe cleaner into the solution and let sit overnight (or longer, depending on the solution). 

In the morning remove the pipe cleaners and allow them to dry.  Make sure you keep the nametags with the crystals, so you know which is which.

*To make a super-saturated solution:

Begin with boiling water in a jar.  Stir in as much of your solid as you can, until no more will dissolve and it starts to settle to the bottom of the jar.  You'll need a different amount of each solid to get the job done.

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Crystal Models

Minerals are made of a crystalline structure.  Many students don't really know what that means.  And a verbal explanation won't suffice for many middle school students.

Have the students make models of the basic crystal shapes using these paper models (or if you don't have the class time to devote to this, you could make a set to have on hand when it comes time to explain crystalline structure*):

Cubic Crystal
Tetragonal Crystal
Hexagonal Crystal
Orthorhombic Crystal
Rhombohedral Crystal
Monoclinic Crystal
Triclinic Crystal

*If you're making a set for classroom use, to have on hand year after year, you might want to go to the extra effort of making your models with cardstock.  They take a little more effort to fold, but they'll hold up better.  Also, make sure you label your models with the crystal shapes - you may be able to remember them for a couple of days, but when you pull them out next year... :)

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Mining: Cupcake Core Samples

Following one of the mining activities, begin a discussion about of the cost of mining… it’s too expensive to just dig a hole in the ground in hopes of finding gold… how could a mine operator determine what’s in there before going through the expense of digging…

Prep Work:

Prepare cupcakes – one for each student. You’ll want to get the foil cupcake “papers” – you don’t want the students to see through the paper.

Begin with a white cake mix. Mix the batter according to the directions. Before placing the batter into cupcake papers, divide the batter into several different bowls. Color the batter in each bowl a different color. Make the cupcakes by placing spoonfuls of at least 2 colors of batter into the cupcake paper. After baking, frost the cupcakes.

Materials:

Layers of clay
Apple Corer
Cupcakes
Straws, cut in half
Plastic knives

Procedure:
Brainstorm ideas for finding out what’s under the earth’s surface without digging.

Demonstrate core sampling with layers of clay and the apple corer.

Each student will get a cupcake and a straw to do some core sampling.

Students use the straws to “drill” in three spots across the middle of the cupcake (the holes need to be made in a line across the cupcake, not a triangle). After the sample’s been drilled, gently blow the sample out of the straw.

Students draw their observations of each sample. (By the way, I've never had the core samples fall apart as badly as they did this time - the cupcakes didn't sit for as long as they usually do and I think that made the difference).

After taking and recording three samples, students make a hypothesis about what the cross-section of the cupcake looks like.

Students use a plastic knife to cut through the cupcake (through the 3 holes) to view the cross-section.

Students draw their observations before eating the evidence.

Conclusion:
Compare evidence with hypothesis.
Thoughts on the lab.

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Minerals: Introductory Activities

It worked out, one year, that I had to be away from school on the first day of my mineral unit.  I wanted to get started on minerals, and not fill the day with unrelated fluff, so I came up with these activities, which were simple for a sub to implement, but still related to the topic at hand.

Know/Want to Know

This is a pretty classic activity, in which students record the things they already know about the topic and they things they'd like to learn during the course of the unit.  This can be used for any topic, science or non-science.  Maybe not the most exciting, but a good starting point. 

Mineral/Rock ABCs

I challenged my students to find a mineral or rock that starts with each letter of the alphabet.  I left a bunch of books around that they could use.  It got them looking at pictures of minerals and at least a little familiar with the names of some of them.

Mineral/Rock Scavenger Hunt

I challenged the students to spend some time looking around the classroom and to list as many things as they could find that were made of/from rocks and minerals.

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Minerals: From Observation to Definition

On the first day of our mineral unit, I have students spend the period observing 12-15 different minerals.  The minerals are each accompanied by an index card with the mineral's name on it. 

Students must write down 3-5 (depending on the students) observations about each mineral: state of matter, color, shape, shiny-ness, etc.

For homework, I have students use their observations to draft their own definition of what a mineral is.  They're looking for things that all of the minerals they observed have in common.  At the very least, they should get "solid" as part of their definition.

I then have them look up the textbook definition and we proceed from there.

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Mining: Birdseed Mining

This is based on an activity from the Women in Mining website. However, it not currently listed as one of their activities.

You'll need:
Bird seed mix (The mix will need to include sunflower seeds, and at least two other types of seeds. You'll need approximately 20 mL of birdseed for each pair of students.)

Small beads - "seed beads" - blue, gold and silver

50 mL beakers - 1 per pair of students

Prep Work:
For every 300 mL of birdseed, add 7 gold beads, 13 silver beads and 25 blue beads.

The activity:
Each pair of students is given 15-20 mL of prepared bird seed mixture.

Students search through the mixture and separate out (i.e. "mine") the sunflower seeds, millet, and beads, making piles of each.



Students count and record each pile of seed: sunflower seeds, millet, blue, gold, silver beads, and everything else (doesn't need to be separated, just counted).

Now for the math...
I typically provide my students with a data table (sometimes it's drawn on the board and they copy it into their notebooks, other times it's provided to them on a piece of paper).

I've tried to recreate said data table here, but have failed. Miserably.

So, here is a picture of said data table:
(I can't figure out why the photos is being rotated... that's just the way my day is going... I'm sorry, you'll have to turn your head, until I can figure out how to fix it).


Hopefully the picture makes things clear, but in case it doesn't, here is an explanation:

A dollar value is assigned to each of the mined substances:

Gold beads = Gold = $5
Silver beads = Silver = $4
Blue beads = Copper = $3
Sunflower seeds = Iron = $2
Millet = Lead/Zinc = $1
Other = Waste = n/a

Students will calculate the value of their mined materials by multiplying the number of pieces of each material by the value of the respective material.

Adding together these values will give students their Gross Income.

In addition, students will determine their expenses by multiplying the total number of materials (including waste - it costs money to dig up waste too!) by 0.23.

Gross Income - Expenses = Net Income (or Loss)

In addition, students can determine their % profit (or loss) with the following formula:

[Net Income (or Loss) / Gross Income] x 100

(In words: net income divided by gross income; that number multiplied by 100)

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Minerals: Birthstone Non-Report

Have your students investigate a mineral, but make it more personal for them - have them research their own birthstone.


FYI: Most June babies will say their birthstone is a pearl. Since a pearl is made by a living thing, it is not a mineral. Fortunately, the alternative birthstones are moonstone and alexandrite, which are minerals.


Now, I don't know about you, but I'm really not much for reading reports. In addition to the dull, repetitive nature of them, in my experience, there is also the increased likelihood of plagerism.

Thus, I present the Non-Report...


The Non-Report needs to include the following information:-Name of the birthstone
-Color(s)
-Physical Properties (hardness, streak, density, crystal structure, cleavage/fracture, luster, specific gravity, etc.)
-Chemical composition and how that relates to its color
-Uses (besides jewelry)
-Where it is mined/found
-Other interesting information (cost, legends, etc.)


Some Non-report ideas:-Kids' book (along the lines of Magic School Bus, for example)
-Video or live performance - skit, song, rap, puppet show, infomercial....
-Ad (like the glossy jewelry ads in the newspaper)
-The life story of ___________ as told by ___________
-Autobiography of _______________
-Newspaper article, as if you're its discoverer


And, I'm not really a big poster person (they take up too much room!), but will sometimes offer a poster option, if they do it in a foreign language (talk to the foreign languages teachers at your school - maybe they'll offer students credit for taking on this option)

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