Cookie Mining Lab
Title: Cookie Mining Lab
Introduction: Like most resources, minerals are distributed unevenly around the world. Minerals are concentrated in various areas of Earth’s crust due to natural processes. Obtaining these minerals for human use involves four general steps: 1. locating the minerals 2. extracting the minerals from Earth in the form of ore or rock 3. processing the ore to separate the impurities from the desired mineral 4. creating a useful product from the minerals
Objectives:
After doing this lab, you should be able to * evaluate the difficulty of mining and reclamation * calculate costs, expenses, income, and profit from a hands-on mining exercise * evaluate the effectiveness of reclamation and its added costs to mining * describe the increasing rarity of some non-renewable mineral resources
Problem: What can we learn about the relationships between the costs and benefits of mining and land reclamation?
Hypothesis:
Materials: * chocolate chip cookie * toothpicks (flat and round) * paperclips * graph paper * stopwatch, timer or clock with second hand
Procedures:
Note: Read all the instructions for this lab before you begin working! Pre-reading the procedure, will give you a mental picture of what you will be doing and a better understanding of the process. 1. In this lab, you will "purchase" a mine, "rent" your mining equipment, and be supervised by an "official." You will keep track of your expenses and your income to calculate your profit (or loss) in the Data and Observations portion of the lab. You should record all data for the lab on this sheet so that you will be able to incorporate the data into your lab report for submission. 2. Now, take a moment and predict your performance. Do you think you will make a profit? Record this information as your Hypothesis above. 3. First, you (the miner) must decide which land area (cookie) you are going to mine. The available “areas” and
Introduction: Like most resources, minerals are distributed unevenly around the world. Minerals are concentrated in various areas of Earth’s crust due to natural processes. Obtaining these minerals for human use involves four general steps: 1. locating the minerals 2. extracting the minerals from Earth in the form of ore or rock 3. processing the ore to separate the impurities from the desired mineral 4. creating a useful product from the minerals
Objectives:
After doing this lab, you should be able to * evaluate the difficulty of mining and reclamation * calculate costs, expenses, income, and profit from a hands-on mining exercise * evaluate the effectiveness of reclamation and its added costs to mining * describe the increasing rarity of some non-renewable mineral resources
Problem: What can we learn about the relationships between the costs and benefits of mining and land reclamation?
Hypothesis:
Materials: * chocolate chip cookie * toothpicks (flat and round) * paperclips * graph paper * stopwatch, timer or clock with second hand
Procedures:
Note: Read all the instructions for this lab before you begin working! Pre-reading the procedure, will give you a mental picture of what you will be doing and a better understanding of the process. 1. In this lab, you will "purchase" a mine, "rent" your mining equipment, and be supervised by an "official." You will keep track of your expenses and your income to calculate your profit (or loss) in the Data and Observations portion of the lab. You should record all data for the lab on this sheet so that you will be able to incorporate the data into your lab report for submission. 2. Now, take a moment and predict your performance. Do you think you will make a profit? Record this information as your Hypothesis above. 3. First, you (the miner) must decide which land area (cookie) you are going to mine. The available “areas” and