"Eating Your Way Through Earth Science"

Chocolate Rock Cycle

How sweet is this activity? It’s an introduction to the rock cycle using chocolate!
Chocolate can be ground into small particles (weathered), heated, cooled, and com-
pressed — just like rocks. Unlike rocks, chocolate can undergo these processes safely and at
reasonable temperatures.
Use your chocolate to create “sedimentary,” “metamorphic,” and “igneous” chocolate.
And at the end of it all, make a tasty treat!
Materials
 Blocks of dark and white chocolate
 Aluminum foil (you can buy one roll which the whole class can use)
 Hot water and a container to hold it
 A plastic knife or any other simple scraping device

Procedure
 First, make "sedimentary" chocolate:
1. Scrape some small shavings from your chocolate blocks.
2. Gather these scrapings onto a piece of aluminum foil and press down on them. You might fold
the aluminum foil and then press on the chocolate shavings. You could even stand on enclosed
foil packages.
3. Observe the joined-together bunch of chocolate scrapings in the foil, which is now similar to sed-
imentary rock.

 Second, make "metamorphic" chocolate:

1. Place a small pile of your sedimentary chocolate, maybe some of your original unused shavings,
and a couple of small chunks from your original blocks into aluminum foil or a cupcake holder.
2. Float this concoction on medium hot water.
3. Watch as the heat from the water transfers to the foil and chocolate, which should start to melt.
4. Remove the foil when the chocolate is soft to the touch (for safety, use the plastic knife, not fin -
gers).
5. Let the chocolate cool. The partially melted and cooled chocolate is now similar to metamorphic
rock.

 Third, make "igneous" chocolate:

1. Place a small pile of sedimentary and metamorphic chocolate and some chunks from the original
blocks into your aluminum foil or cupcake holder.
2. Float this concoction on very hot (near/at boiling temperature) water.
3. Watch as the heat transfers from the water to the foil and melting chocolate. Allow the choco -
late to melt until a smooth liquid forms.
4. Carefully remove the molten chocolate and let it cool, still contained in aluminum. Your melted
and cooled chocolate is now similar to igneous rock.
5. Discuss: The “chocolate cycle” is designed to mirror the rock cycle. The rock cycle is a continuing
process that has occurred throughout geological time. One type of rock can become another
type over time. Very little rock on the surface of the earth has remained fixed in its original rock
type. Most rocks have undergone several changes of the rock cycle!
 "Eating Your Way Through Earth Science"
Earth’s Layers
OBJECTIVES
To discover the layers of the earth.

MATERIALS
1. chocolate cookies crumbs 7. red food coloring
2. graham cracker crumbs 8. orange candies
3. cool whip 9. gum balls
4. chocolate nips (various colors) 10. clear plastic cups
5. gummy worms 11. plastic spoons
6. raisins

DIRECTIONS
1. Start by using the gum balls to represent the core.
Discuss why the core most likely consists of liquid iron.
2. Next use cool whip dyed red to represent the mantle.
Discuss why the mantle is liquid but thick and can move underneath the bedrock.
3. Next use the chocolate nips and raisins mixture to represent bedrock.
Discuss why there is bedrock and it helps support the earth, and the different types of
rocks there are.
4. Next add a layer of graham crackers crumbs to represent the clay layer.
Explain how clay holds the water in aquifers.
5. Next add a layer of crushed chocolate cookies to represent the topsoil.
Determine the living things live and grow in topsoil and what role topsoil plays and how
topsoil is different from clay.
6. Last add the gummy worms and orange candies to represent life living on Earth.

Once the model has been created and you have drawn in your notes what the model
looks like, then you can have a chance to EARN your spoon.

(The teacher asks each student a question pertaining to what they have just discussed, if
the student gets the answer correct then he/she gets a spoon. If he/she does not get the
question correct, go on to another student and give the student another chance. Once everyone
in the class has earned their spoon then the students may enjoy their earth!)
 "Eating Your Way Through Earth Science"
ChocoPlate Tectonics
OBJECTIVES
To discover how the plates of the earth move to create landforms.

MATERIALS
1. Cloud 9 candy bars
2. Paper towels
3. Paper plates
DIRECTIONS (Require students to wash their hands well before this activity!)

1. Simulate a divergent boundary where the plates split apart forming a trench or rift valley, by pulling the
Cloud 9 in half. Make sure to leave the caramel dipping between the two halves.

2. Draw what you see and list the landform/s you created.

3. Next simulate a transform boundary where two plates slip past one another, by sliding the two halves in
opposite directions. Make sure you see that landforms such as peninsulas can form in this manner.

4. Simulate a convergent boundary, where two plates collide causing one plate to uplift over the other, by
pushing the two sides of the Cloud 9 into one another. You should see clearly how landforms like moun -
tains and volcanoes can be created.

5. Make your conclusions about certain landforms on earth and what type of boundary are created them.

D.I.Y. Lava Lamp

Objectives:
1. Produce an output that simulates the properties of lava;
2. Handle all equipment and water carefully and responsibly;
3. Dispose of waste responsibly.

Materials and Equipment:

 300 mL vegetable oil
 100 mL water
 1 set of food coloring
 1 tall drinking glass
 3 soluble aspirin (alka seltzer)

Procedure:
1. Fill glass with water about ¼ its capacity.
2. Carefully add vegetable oil until glass is nearly full.
3. Add two or three drops of food coloring and observe.
Observation:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

4. Add soluble aspirin tablet and observe.

Observation:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

5. Describe the properties that you see and compare this with the properties of actual lava.

6. Discuss ideas about how the lava lamp works.

7. All group members cooperate to clean up.

"Eating Your Way Through Earth Science"

The Phases of the Moon
OBJECTIVES
To create a representation of the phases of the moon.

MATERIALS
1. Mini Oreo cookies
 2. Wooden craft stick
3. Paper plates
4. Styrene ball
5. Wooden stick
6. Flashlight
7. Science notebook

DIRECTIONS
Time: 45 minutes
Discuss with students why we see different phases of the moon.
Demonstrate for students using a styrene ball on a stick and a flashlight why we see different phases of
the moon depending on where the earth is in relationship to the moon and the sun.
Have students draw the earth in the middle of their paper plates and the sun on the right edge of the pa -
per plate.
Give each student four mini Oreos.
Have students open their mini Oreos so that each half is either completely dark or completely white.
Discuss with students which phases a fully dark and a fully white circle would represent.
Have students place one fully dark cookie between the earth and the sun and the fully white cookie on
the other side of the earth so that all are in a line.
Have students label the dark moon “New Moon” and the white moon “Full Moon”.
Next have students scrape off half of the filling from one white cookie and place the half scraped off on
a dark cookie.
These represent the “1st Quarter” and “3rd Quarter” moons.
Have students place the “1st Quarter” moon to the top of the earth and the “3rd Quarter” moon to the
bottom of the earth.
Make sure that the white faces toward the sun on the “1st Quarter” moon and the white faces toward the
“Full Moon” for the “3rd Quarter” moon.
Next have students scrape just a little off of the remaining two white halves and put the sliver that they
scrape off onto the remaining two dark halves. Have students arrange the phases so that the two cookies
with the most frosting are closest to the “Full Moon” while the two cookies with the least amount of frost -
ing are nearest the “New Moon”
The phase between the “New Moon” and the “1st Quarter” is the “Waxing Crescent”, while the phase
between the “1st Quarter” and the “Full Moon” is the “Waxing Gibbous”. Make sure both of these phases
have the white facing toward the sun.
The phase between the “Full Moon” and the “3rd Quarter” is the “Waning Gibbous” while the phase
between the “3rd Quarter” and the “New Moon” is the “Waning Crescent”. Make sure that the white on
both of these phases is facing toward the “Full Moon”.
Have students draw what they see on their plates in their notebooks.
Give students the saying “Wax on, Wane off” (like the Karate Kid) to help them remember the order of
the phases.