Cookie Fossil Dig

Can your students work with the precision and patience needed by a paleontologist on a fossil dig?

Provide each student with a chocolate chip cookie, a toothpick and a small paintbrush.  See who can remove the most unscathed chocolate chips without breaking the cookie!

You might want to have your students try a few different types of cookies - are the chips easier to remove from crisp cookies or soft, chewy cookies?

I did this simple, paleontologist cookie dig with students at our library during a summer program, which was perfect for the age group I was working with (3 - 10).  However, I've also done cookie mining with middle school students.  Women in Mining provides a fantastic activity that includes a financial aspect (students are given a budget and have to purchase their cookie, mining tools, mining time and reclamation costs) in addition to precision.  I've mentioned it before, but it's worth repeating... take some time to check out the other activities on the Women in Mining website - they're really well done!