Maura McTighe

“Cookie Mining” 5E Lesson Plan

NGSS: 4-ESS3-1: Earth and Human Activity

Performance Expectation:
Obtain and combine information to describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural
resources and their uses affect the environment.
Science and Engineering Practices:
Obtain and combine information from books and other reliable media to explain phenomena
Disciplinary Core Ideas:
Energy and fuels that humans use are derived from natural sources and their use affects the
environment in multiple ways. Some resources are renewable over time, and others are not.
Crosscutting Concepts:
Cause and Effect relationships are identified and used to explain change
Over time, people’s needs and wants change as do their demands for new and improved
technologies.

Engage:
Today, we are going to be looking at different forms of energy. On each of your tables, there is
a basket that has a soup can, a ceramic pot, a fork, a paper clip and a pop can. In your science
journals I want you to write down what you THINK each of these items are made out of and if
they can be reused or recycled. Can someone please tell me what recycled or reused means?
*Call on a student/or students until the correct answer is given* You will have about 5 minutes,
and then we will share. *After about 5 minutes I will call on at least 2 students to hear what they
wrote down for each item* Many of the objects on your table can be recycled or reused. Raise
your hand if you have ever recycled something at school. *Call on a few kids who have raised
their hands and ask what they recycled* Okay, now raise your hand if you have ever recycled
something at home. *Call on a few kids and ask what they recycled at home.* The materials
that are not allowed to be recycled are known as non-renewable resources.

Explore:
Does anyone know where a good amount of our materials come from or how we get them?
*Call on students to hear what they think. If a student says people mine for them, stop there*
There are quite a few of our resources that come from being mined. Can anyone tell me some
resources that we get from mining? *Call on students to hear what materials they know we can
get from mining* Now that we know some materials that we can get from mining, I have a little
bit of a challenge for you all. In your groups, you are going to try and fill out this worksheet to
the best of your abilities and please make sure everyone is working on it. You will have about 5
minutes to get through this worksheet. *Give the students 5 minutes to work on the worksheet*
Now, I will give you all another 5 minutes to work on this worksheet and you are allowed to use
your computers. *Give the students another 5 minutes to go over this worksheet while using
their computers*
Now that we are all about done with this worksheet we are going to go over the answers. *Go
over the answers with the students answering* So, we know that all of these resources are
being mined from the earth. Today, you guys are going to be mining for coal using a chocolate
chip cookie. Each of you are going to get a mining area grid and a cookie. At the top of your
paper, you are going to write how many chocolate chips you think are in your cookie without
picking it up, just by looking at it from the top. Once you have that done, I want you to trace
your cookie with a pencil and leave it there. Give me a thumbs up when you are done. *Wait
until all the students have given a thumbs up* Now, you are going to “mine” the chocolate chips
out of the cookie. The trick is that you can only use your toothpicks, you can not touch the
cookie or the chocolate chips with your fingers. *Give the students about 7 minutes to mine the
chocolate chips out of the cookie while walking around to make sure the students are following
the directions*

Explain:
Now, I want everyone to stop and put their toothpicks down. Without touching anything on your
mining grid, I want you to take your pencil and draw a big circle around all of the squares that
there is any crumbs or any part of the cookie. Then I want you to count the number of chocolate
chips you have gotten out of the cookie and the number of squares that you have circled. Then,
I want you to come up and put your numbers on the board. *Give the students time to count
their chips, squares and to put their numbers on the board* Now, most of the squares on the
grid have a little picture. Can someone tell me what you think they represent? *Call o kiddos to
hear what they think each of the pictures represent*

Elaborate:
So, each of these squares represent a natural attribute. When we look over here at how many
squares each of you had circled, this represents how many natural attributes were ruined just
for a small amount of coal. These attributes will take a long time to get back to the way they
were, if they ever get back to the way they were. Once the coal is used, we can not use it
again. This is because it is a non renewable resource. There is only so much of coal and other
non-renewable resources in the world. What was the largest number of attributes that was
ruined? *Have students answer as a class* What was the largest number of coal? *Have
students answer as a class* So, what do you think is going to happen over time and as the
population grows? *Call on students to hear them say that eventually we will run out* Will we
ever be able to get the attributes back to the way they were before we got all this stuff on them
or in the? *Call on students*

Evaluate:
In your science journals, I want you to answer the questions on the board.
1. What was my original goal when I started mining the cookie? What difficulties did I have
while mining my cookie?
2. If I were to mine another cookie, would I have the same goal? If not, what would my new
goal be and why?
3. How was my experience similar or different than the goals and difficulties or real mining
operations?
4. Give an example of a time when you had to make a choice. What did you choose to do
and what was the opportunity cost of that choice?
Reflection
Overall, I think that this lesson went well. It was hard to tell if we got the directions
across correctly in the first place but I think it helped that we walked around and
restated the directions when we saw people doing it a different way. I think that one
thing that would make this lesson easier would be to have all the students come around
and see the teacher mine the cookie before they begin to mine the cookie themselves.
Another thing that I think would make it easier would be to make a chart to see exactly
how much land was ruined compared to how many pieces of coal were extracted from
the land. One thing that I thought went well was having the students work together on
the worksheet. In a classroom with younger kids I would allow them to work together
first, like we did in class, then let them use other sources like the internet. In the future,
I would have more discussion questions prepared for the students and give them more
time to think about them and discuss them as a group before sharing as an entire class.