Unless your mom had questionable baking skills, you probably never equated rocks with chocolate chips.

Last week, the fourth grade students of Old Hammondtown School in Mattapoisett learned that the process of combining ingredients to make cookies is similar to that of combining minerals to form rocks.

“Minerals are ingredients for rocks,” said Noelle Perry, an educator with the Museum of Science in Boston.

Perry led the students in the museum’s traveling education program, “Geology: Rock Detectives.”

Equipped with microscopes, data charts and goggles, the students learned about the three types of rocks.

There are igneous rocks, which are rocks formed by the cooling and solidification of molten lava.

Metamorphic rocks are those formed by heat and pressure.

Lastly, sedimentary rocks are those formed at the bottom of the ocean as the water pushing sediments down to the ocean floor.

After going over the basics of geology, Perry invited the students to help solve a rock wall mystery.

Perry had the students test the hardness of a rock by scratching it on glass, examining the layers and color patterns of the rocks and studying the different particles that make up a particular rock under a microscope.

Thrilled to become junior detectives, the students had one word for Perry’s challenge.

“Awesome,” they all said in unison.

The Mattapoisett Parent Teacher Association funded the presentation. Chair of the PTA’s Arts and Humanities Committee Debra Nettles commended the museum’s programs.

“We had this geology program last year and it was just wonderful,” Nettles said.

“They’re just so right on and the kids loved it.  They do a really good job.”

The geology program goes hand-in-hand with the fourth grade’s current curriculum.

“It’s just wonderful because it keeps the kids’ attention,” Nettles said.