Adriana Ocampo - Cookie Quarry

Adriana Ocampo is a planetary geologist who studies rocks and landforms on other planets and right here on Earth. Adriana and her husband were traveling in Belize when Adriana made an amazing discovery in a type of rock known as breccia. Trapped in the breccia were pieces of ejecta—material that results from the crash of an outer space object into Earth.

In this activity you'll bake cookies that look like breccia. Then you'll see if your friends can identify the ingredients, the way that geologists like Adriana identify the pieces in real breccia.


	3 eggs ½ cup butter 1 cup brown sugar, packed 1 cup white sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 teaspoon white corn syrup 2 teaspoons baking powder 1½ cup peanut butter 4½ cup quick oats 1 cup chocolate chips 1 cup M&Ms Cookie sheet Measuring cups Measuring spoons Bowls Mixer Teaspoon Oven mitts or pot holders Cooling rack An adult Fellow scientists Paper Pens or pencils Cookie Quarry Data Sheet Cookie Quarry Rocks Cookie Quarry Journal

1. Print this activity.

Print this page, the Cookie Quarry Data Sheet, the Cookie Quarry Rocks page, and the Cookie Quarry Journal.

2. Make cookies.

Cream together eggs, butter, brown sugar, and white sugar
Add remaining ingredients and mix well
Spoon onto ungreased cookie sheet
Bake at 350° F for 12-15 minutes
Remove from the oven and let cool on a cooling rack

3. Have a cookie party.

Invite some friends and fellow scientists over to share cookies with you. Give each one a couple of cookies, a sheet of paper, and a pen or pencil. Tell them they will have to make a hypothesis, or guess the ingredients in the cookies, before they can actually eat the cookies.

4. Look for clues.

Ask your fellow scientists to break open one of their cookies. They should write down what ingredients they think you used to bake the cookies. When they're done, collect all the papers.

5. Analyze your data.

Use your friends' papers to fill in the Cookie Quarry Data Sheet. When you're done, compare their guesses to the actual ingredient list. Together, look at the Cookie Quarry Rocks printout and see which type of breccia most resembles your cookies.

6. Eat up!

Yum.

7. Fill in the Cookie Quarry Journal

We didn't expect you to do all the work before you ate! So have another cookie and fill in your journal. Then go outside and look for clues in some real rocks.

Certain types of rocks are likely to be found in specific areas of Earth.

Sedimentary rocks, such as shale, limestone, and breccia, make up 75% of the rocks found near the surface of Earth. Sedimentary rocks are formed when sediment, or small pieces of material like sand, soil, and mud become cemented together by pressure. The Grand Canyon is a great example of a sedimentary rock formation.

Igneous rocks are formed from magma, a hot, liquid mix of minerals found deep below the surface of the earth. Granite is an igneous rock.

Metamorphic rocks are formed when intense heat and pressure transform one type of rock into another, new type of rock. Schist and gneiss are both common types of metamorphic rock.