Cookie Mining Lab.doc
Name ___________________________________ Per ________ Date ______________
AP Environmental Science
Mining Simulation Lab – “That’s the Way the Cookie Crumbles”
Introduction: Many energy resources are unevenly distributed and have limits to their usefulness. In fact, in most processes, energy is not uniformly distributed. Thus, processes that require greater quantities of energy are often less economical and therefore abandoned for “cheaper” and “easier” techniques. Consider this idea as you complete this exercise.
Objectives:
- Demonstrate mining of the earth’s surface and underground
- Observe the limits of several energy resources
- Demonstrate economics skills in a simulation
- Calculate area, volume, and percent error
Materials: “money,” pencils, chocolate chip cookies, toothpicks, paper clips, ruler, digital balance, stopwatch, plain paper, calculator.
Safety: Students should wear eye protection during mining. Students with food allergies may prefer to handle cookies using nitrile gloves.
Procedure:
- Mass your cookie in grams and record this value on your data sheet.
- Measure the diameter and depth of your cookie and calculate its area and volume using the formulae provided. Do NOT record your answers in terms of pi. Record these values on your data sheet.
- Each group has an “account” consisting of $20. Prices for materials are as follows:
- Cookie - $5 (only one per group)
- Toothpick - $3 each (if tools break, new ones must be purchased)
- Paper clips - $6 each
- Mining costs - $1 per minute (10 minutes maximum)
- Reclamation costs - $1 for each 0.25g of mass lost
- The sale of one chocolate chip mined from the cookie results in a $2 profit. (Broken chips can be combined to make one whole chip)
- Set your cookie on a piece of plain paper. Count the number of visible chunks of chocolate embedded in the surface and underside of the cookie. Record this number.
- Using this number, and the number of one other group, predict how many total chips you will find in your cookie. Record this value on your data sheet.
- Utilize the instruments to begin mining your cookie. ONLY THE TOOLS may touch the cookie as you mine!! NO HANDS!! As you mine, separate the chocolate from your crumbling cookie by carefully placing your chocolate on another piece of paper. Be sure to keep track of the amount of time you are spending mining so you can use it in your calculations later.
- When you are finished mining, mass each piece of paper (one with extracted chocolate, one with the cookie and crumbs) and record these values on the data sheet.
- Add up your mining costs per minute and subtract $2 for each chocolate chip extracted. Complete your economic calculations on the data sheet.
- Calculate the percent error (amount of mass lost) using the formula on the data sheet.
Data Sheet – Crunchy Cookie
Original Mass of cookie = ____________________g
Area of cookie = 2πr2 + 2πrh Volume of cookie = πr2h
# of visible chips ______________________
Predicted # of chips to be excavated ______________________
Start-Up Funds = $20
- Land acquisition costs (price of cookie) $5
- Equipment costs
Toothpicks ______________ x $3 each = ________
Paper Clips ______________ x $6 each = ________
- Mining/Excavation Costs (chip removal)
# minutes ___________ x $1/min = ________
- Mining valuation (profit)
# chips mined _________ x $2 each = ________
- Reclamation costs
$1/each 0.25 grams = ________
Profit/Loss:
Start-Up Funds _________________
Minus total mining costs (A + B + C) _________________
Minus total reclamation costs (E) _________________
Plus gross profit (D) _________________
Total profit/loss _________________
Final Mass of Cookie & Crumbs = ______________________g
Final Mass of Chocolate = _______________________g
Sum of Chocolate mass + Cookie/Crumb mass = ____________________________g
Percent Error: (final total mass – original mass) * 100 = __________________________
original mass
Data Sheet – Chewy Cookie
Original Mass of cookie = ____________________g
Area of cookie = 2πr2 + 2πrh Volume of cookie = πr2h
# of visible chips ______________________
Predicted # of chips to be excavated ______________________
Start-Up Funds = $20
- Land acquisition costs (price of cookie) $5
- Equipment costs
Toothpicks ______________ x $3 each = ________
Paper Clips ______________ x $6 each = ________
- Mining/Excavation Costs (chip removal)
# minutes ___________ x $1/min = ________
- Mining valuation (profit)
# chips mined _________ x $2 each = ________
- Reclamation costs
$1/each 0.25 grams = ________
Profit/Loss:
Start-Up Funds _________________
Minus total mining costs (A + B + C) _________________
Minus total reclamation costs (E) _________________
Plus gross profit (D) _________________
Total profit/loss _________________
Final Mass of Cookie & Crumbs = ______________________g
Final Mass of Chocolate = _______________________g
Sum of Chocolate mass + Cookie/Crumb mass = ____________________________g
Percent Error: (final total mass – original mass) * 100 = __________________________
original mass
Analysis Questions (discuss for both cookie types)
- Discuss the problems that your mining company encountered from the start.
- In what way was this activity a realistic model of mining? In what way was it unrealistic? Give examples.
- On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being extremely difficult), how difficult was this mine site to work? Explain your answer. What were some of the problems encountered on your particular site? How did you get around them?
- Did you make a profit?
- What were some of the economic decisions your company had to make?
- What guidelines would you give to new miners prior to this lab so that they would do less environmental harm?
- At what point was the mine most profitable? Was there ever a point where you would have just given up? Explain.
- Compare your simulation with those of others. How did your results compare to those of other groups? Why were there differences?
- How can you account for your percent error in your cookie mass?