Cookie Mining (abridged version)
Objective: The objective is for students to understand what it was like
to be a miner by “mining” chocolate chip cookies to see how many
chips they can extract using the tool provided.
Directions: Teacher should prep for the activity by gathering a few different types
of chocolate chip cookies, envelopes, paper clips, and round toothpicks. Place
one cookie and one tool (either a paper clip or a toothpick) in each envelope.
Students randomly pick an envelope. This is their claim. They may have gotten a
good one, or maybe not. The objective is to use the tool provided (without
picking up the cookie) to extract chips from the cookie. Some tools may work
better than others, and some cookies will have more chips than others. Students
should see the parallel that some gold miners had a good experience, and some
didn’t.
Before beginning to mine, students could estimate how many chips they think
they will mine, and then compare this estimate to the actual amount. Another
math connection would be to figure out the average number of chips mined in
the class.
Another discussion would involve which tool worked better and why? What were
the attributes of the more effective tool. Relate this to the gold miner’s tools as
well.
*Note: there are other, more involved versions available on the internet. This is
very simplified.