I can't take credit for creating the edible recipe and trust me when I say there are lots of versions out there. But, I found a recipe that better coincided with the aspect of soil profiling that I was teaching and I made a little modification in ingredients due to time constraints and school regulations.
Materials Needed (for a group of 20):
- Clear cups
- plain M&M's
- 2 tubs of Cool Whip
- hot chocolate powder mix
- Oreo cookies, crushed/crumbled
- gummy worms
- Sort each material in separate containers so children can easily access each material.
- Allow the Cool Whip to stand at room temperature so that it is not frozen. Mix in enough hot chocolate mix and stir until you reach the desired color and the white has blended in well with the chocolate.
- 1 spoon of M&M's.
- 2 spoonfuls of Cool Whip/cocoa mix
- sprinkle of sprinkles
- 2 spoonfuls of crushed cookies
- 1 gummy worm
- The M&M's represent the rocky, parent material.
- The Cool Whip mixture represents the subsoil.
- The sprinkles represent the organisms.
- The crushed cookies represent the topsoil.
- And then there's the earth worm that lives in the soil.
You can make a large pan of this for a party or class activity, but I really wanted the kids to make their own. :-)