Instructor’s Note: This is more fun if you have baked the cookies before this homeschool science lab begins, without students seeing where the “fossils” are hidden.

Read through steps 1-7 of the procedures before making the cookies. 

• 8in x 8in Pan
• *Batch of cookie dough (you choose what type – if choosing chocolate chip cookie dough as your base, omit the chocolate chips)
• 1/2 cup coconut or pretzels (broken into 1/4 inch pieces)
• 1/3 cup of Red M&Ms
• 1/4 cup Yellow M&Ms
• 1/3 cup Peanuts
• 1/4 cup Walnuts
• 1/2 cup Raisins
• Chocolate Bars – Enough to lay side by side and cover the entire 8in x 8in surface area, do not be stingy with this! (You can substitute frosting, if you prefer)
• 2 Toothpicks per Student
• Lab Sheets
• Pen or Pencil
• 6 Different Colored Pencils – One for each type of “fossil”
• Knife
• Spatula
• Plate

* The ingredients for the cookies depend on the cookie recipe you choose.

1. Make the cookie dough per the recipe instructions.
2. Before baking, mix together the raisins, the red M&Ms, 1/3 cup of coconut/pretzels (rest will be used at a later step), and peanuts. Add this mixture to the cookie dough. Do not try to evenly distribute these add-ins.
3. Spread the dough into the 8in x 8in pan. Even though the distribution is not uniform, make sure that there are some “fossils” in each 4-inch square of cookies. There will be four squares total.
4. Bake the cookies following the directions for bar cookies from your cookie dough recipe.
5. Once the cookies have finished baking, sprinkle the walnuts, remaining pretzels/coconut, and yellow M&Ms on top of the cookies.
6. Lay the chocolate bars on top of the cookies, covering all of the walnuts, pretzels/coconut, and M&Ms.
7. Place this cookie pan back into the warm (but off) oven until the chocolate on top has melted. The chocolate should be covering all the items to some degree, including those layered on top.
8. Once chocolate has melted, place in the refrigerator until chocolate has hardened.
9. Cut the cookies into 4-inch squares to match the grid on page 1 of the lab sheet. *If you need more than four squares, quarter each square for a total of sixteen 2-inch squares. Use a pen and a ruler to change the grid on page 1 of the homeschool science lab sheet and add these to the bar graph. Each of the squares is called a quadrant.

1. Use the spatula to take out one cookie square and put it on a plate. Have students answer the first two questions on their lab sheet.
2. Let the students get to work, using the toothpicks to separate and group the materials. There should be seven piles, one for each type of “fossil”: raisins, red M&Ms, yellow M&Ms, peanuts, walnuts, pretzels/coconut, and one for cookie crumbs. Take note of the layer in which each item is found.
3. When the students are done with a quadrant, they will make note the number of each fossil found in that quadrant. They will examine all quadrants.
4. After digging through all quadrants, students will put their results into the bar graph and answer the questions on the homeschool science lab sheet.

If this is the first bar graph students have made, be prepared to help them. You might need to scaffold the instruction by doing the bars in the graph for quadrant A1.

To make cookies vegan: make the base recipe for chocolate chip cookies without eggs and substitute a vegan butter.

To make the cookies dairy free: use a dairy free butter substitute.

In the demo, blue M&Ms were subbed for red because that is what was available. Feel free to swap colors as needed but make sure that the two colors you use are easily distinguishable.

More homeschool science lab fun: Use a search engine to see if there is a dig site in your area and visit it!