Mining for Chocolate Chips

Last week we "mined" a chocolate chip using two different methods. First students removed the chocolate chips any way they wanted, including crushing the cookie. Then students used a toothpick to "mine" the chocolate chips. 

They discovered that while crushing the cookie resulted in extracting more chocolate chips, the cookie was destroyed beyond repair. Removing the chocolate chips with a toothpick kept their cookie in tact. We compared this with mining different minerals and learned that some methods destroy the environment while others protect it. It was a delicious lesson!