Fourth Grade Greendale Elementary Students Mine for “Coal”

To wrap the unit in Natural Resources, Mrs. Kiser’s classes at Greendale Elementary were given the opportunity to mine for coal.  Using two types of chocolate chip cookies and toothpicks, the students were able to mine for coal and see how easy or difficult the mining industry can be.  

The students also used their scientific method skills by coming up with a hypothesis to see how much coal (chocolate chips) they could extract from their cookie.  After extracting the coal, the class also discussed ways to reclaim the land they mined by trying to put their cookie back together.  After the lesson, the students enjoyed their cookies.  It was one tasty way to mine coal!