In the final chapter of this unit the students compare different energy sources currently used in North America.
To model the extraction of non-renewable energy sources from the environment the students 'mine' chocolate chips from chocolate chip cookies. In the gallery of images you will see the students: preparing their notes, writing their hypotheses, 'mining', taking notes and observations, 'mining' a second time for comparative analysis and finally eating the spoils that did not meet the end of the tooth pick.
The students worked in groups of three, as they usually do in most activities. They set the experiment up in their groups the day prior to the execution of it. Each student had a roll in the group, which was negotiated in the group. Not all groups worked in an identical fashion, but all groups completed the experiment in a similar fashion. As well, each student wrote a formal report of the experiment following the standard format of scientific research, they shared the data that they collected and they coached and editted each others reports. They see themselves as scientists, as they should, because they are. They are learning and they are having fun - there are a lot of smiles mixed in with the focused faces.