Minerals are to Rocks as Oatmeal is to Cookie

We did a really fun geology activity today.

I wanted them to understand the relationship between rocks and minerals...so I turned to cookies.
They were each given an oatmeal and a chocolate chip cookie and a magnifying glass.
Also on the table were all the ingredients for making oatmeal-raisin cookies and chocolate chip cookies. Their task was to put the ingredients into three groups. One group was to be what was unique to the oatmeal-raisin cookie...another group was to be the ingredients common to both cookies and the last group was what was unique to the chocolate chip cookie.

Throughout this activity, I compared the cookies to rocks and the individual ingredients to minerals. Many rocks have components that are in common, but each have their own special combination, making a unique type. Cookies, too, have many things in common, but the addition of different spices or other ingredients will make the difference between an oatmeal-raisin cookie and a chocolate chip. With all the ingredients measured out, we made the cookies, of course.

(Another fun Geology Activity with Cookies is here.)