Chocolate-chip mining (21)

Rocks and minerals are found in the ground. We have to dig, or mine these rocks and minerals out
of the ground so that we can use them to make all sorts of useful things.

Aim: To model the mining process by using a chocolate chip biscuit as the mining site.

The valuable mineral the biscuit contains is chocolate. You need to design a technique to extract
the most amount of mineral from the mine in 5 minutes. Extracting the minerals must be done in a
way that causes the least amount of damage to the environment.

Materials required (per group): chocolate chip biscuit, 2 toothpicks, mining lease sheet.

Method:
1. In a small group, plan to extract the chocolate chips from the biscuit using the toothpicks.
2. Weigh the biscuit before you start mining and record its mass.
3. Wait for your teacher to start the 5-minute timer, and then start mining. Ensure all chocolate
chips and waste material is kept inside your mining lease.
4. Carefully put each extracted chocolate chip aside.
5. Record the mass of the chocolate chips after extraction and the mass of the waste material.

Mass of biscuit (g) Mass of chocolate chips Mass of waste material

after extraction (g) (g)
10 13

23
Questions:

1. Compare the mass of your biscuit and the mass of chocolate chips extracted.

13g, 43% chocolate chip.

2. Compare the mass of your biscuit and the mass of the waste material.
10g

Mass of biscuit (g) Mass of chocolate chips Mass of waste material

after extraction (g) (g)
22 8 14

Questions:

1. Compare the mass of your biscuit and the mass of chocolate chips extracted.

14g, 36% chocolate chip.

2. Compare the mass of your biscuit and the mass of the waste material.
8g