Cookie Mining Lab – Fun and Tasty Lab

In this fun cookie mining lab, students will model how surface mining impacts the environment and human communities using a cookie and a toothpick!

Hands-on CER made fun (and tasty)! Students create their own town maps to model the environmental and human impacts of surface mining. They will also complete pre-lab and post lab data and analysis questions and a short CER writing activity. You’ll also get a detailed lesson plan, differentiated town maps, rubric, and an answer key—all ready to use.

Cooking Mining Lab Topics:

• Surface Mining
• Impacts of Mining
• Human Impact on the Environment
• Renewable and Non-Renewable Natural Resources
• CER in Science

Cooking Mining Lab Overview:

1. Students answer pre-lab questions to build background knowledge (student-friendly reference handout included).
2. Students design a town using the provided town map templates (4 versions)
3. Students place a cookie on their town map and mine for coal ore using a toothpick.
4. Students analyze their results and complete post-lab analysis questions.
5. As a culminating task, students complete a short CER writing activity focused on surface mining, human impact, and the environment.

Editable student handouts, town maps, and rubric are also included in your download.

Natural Resources Cookie Mining Lab Includes:

• Teacher lesson plan, directions, and teacher procedure
• Student cookie mining lab handout (editable)
• Town map templates (editable)
• Rubric (editable)
• Images of student examples
• Answer key

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