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Earth Science Education
Geologic and Paleontologic Cook Book
Would you like to make edible prehistoric critters?
Do you want to explore and mine for edible ores?
Would you like to make science fun and tasty?
Maybe you just want to start people talking about your next appetizer tray?
Then this is the site for you. The following are some edible suggestions. Some were concocted by our own resident paleontologists and scientists, others are links to sites elsewhere on the web. If you know of links to other recipes, or want to submit a recipe yourself, please contact Stephen F. Greb at the Kentucky Geological Survey. The only guidelines are that the activity, model, or exercise, should use food to illustrate, demonstrate, or explain an earth-science concept, and that the activity, model, or exercise can be safely eaten (at least in part) when finished.
- Edible Devonian marine ecosystem (sheet cake):
Naturalists at the Falls of the Ohio
Falls of the Ohio State Park, Clarksville, Indiana
Create a fossil marine ecosystem out of a sheet cake, candy, and other edible materials. Some animals are predatory, others are filter feeders or scavengers. You can use food to demonstrate all three, create a food web, and then place yourself at the top as the top predator when you eat your creation.
- Trilobite cookies
George Hart
www.georgehart.com/trilobites/trilobite.html
This site offers step by step instructions for making trilobite cookies from scratch, with photographs to help along the way. The cookies represent Dr. Hart's most recent research into what ancient trilobites would have tasted like if primitive biochemical processes were based on jam/chocolate/cookie molecules.
- More trilobite cookies
- Even easier trilobite cookies
- Filter feeding with graham crackers and popcorn
(Why we aren't filter feeders)
Naturalists at the Falls of the Ohio
Falls of the Ohio State Park, Clarksville, Indiana
In this activity, popcorn and graham cracker crumbs are used to show that organisms are designed for specific feeding methods.
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Plate tectonics with an orange
Adapted from Women in Mining
Kentucky Coal Council, coal education web site
Here's a fun and healthy way to demonstrate plate tectonics to a K-12 audience. Students peel an orange to make plates in the earth's (orange's) crust.
- A paste with taste
Adapted from Women in Mining
Kentucky Coal Council, coal education web site
Would you like to make your own toothpaste? Would you like to experiment with different flavors? Then this is the experiment for you. Students try to produce a "marketable" product used by most people every day, that is made from minerals.
- Layer-cake geology
John R. Wagner
Department of Earth Sciences, Clemson University
This activity is aimed at grades 4-6 and helps students to visualize (1) mechanisms of folding and faulting, (2) the difference between brittle and ductile rocks, and (3) how core samples are used to predict the layering of rocks beneath the surface, by using a layer cake.
- Layer-cake mining
Adapted from Women in Mining
Kentucky Coal Council, coal education web site
In this exercise, a layer cake is used to show how folding and faulting effects rock strata and allows students to core into the cake strata to discover what's hidden beneath the surface
- Cupcake core sampling
Adapted from Women in Mining
Kentucky Coal Council, coal education web site
In this exercise, students use straws to core into cupcakes and see what's beneath the surface. They may record their findings and make a cross section of the cupcake's interior to see where the bed is that they should mine or eat.
- Cookie mining
Adapted from Women in Mining
Earth Science World, American Geologic Institute
In this variation of a popular grade 3-8 activity, chocolate chip cookies are used to illustate the economics of mining. Each player buys a cookie (the property), purchases the mining equipment (toothpicks), pays for the mining operation, and finally pays for the reclamation. In return, the player receives money for the ore (chips) mined. The object of the game is to develop the mine, safeguard the environment, and make as much money as possible. An added bonus is you can eat both the ore and refuse at the end of the activity.
- Paleo cookie dig
Sharon K. Heindel
Learning from the Fossil Record, University of California, Berkeley
In this activity, students use cookie bars, Rice-Krispie treats ®, and soil (the non-edible part of the activity) to dig for "fossils." Students plot the data collected and then make bar charts of their results, as would be done in an actual paleontological dig. Of course, students can then eat their data, which is rarely possible in actual paleontological digs.
- Extraction (What's in the cereal you eat?)
Adapted from Women in Mining
Kentucky Coal Council, coal education web site
Do you want to discover minerals in the cereal you eat? This activity introduces students to the concept of extracting valuable minerals from the rock that contain these minerals by using iron-fortified cereal and a magnet.
- Mining in a nutshell
Adapted from Women in Mining
Kentucky Coal Council, coal education web site
This activity uses peanuts to demonstrate the steps that are taken to find, extract, process and use mineral resources. The students will be able to describe the major steps that a company must follow from initial discovery of a mineral deposit through consumption of a finished mineral product. The students will also be able to formulate ideas on ways to use waste products generated during mineral processing.
- Determining the age of rocks and fossils (with M and M's)
Frank K. McKinney
University of California, Berkeley
This 9-12-grade activity introduces students to age dating with exercises using relative and absolute dating. The idea of radioactive decay and half lives, a type of absolute dating, is shown through an activity using M&M's candy and graph paper.
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