Transcript Science Fair Project

Science Fair Project
Cooking/Baking Science
Lovin’ From the Oven
Tina Kinnerup & Molly Bohannon
Statement of the Problem
Do different types of metal conduct heat
differently?
Project Overview
To see if different metals conduct heat differently, we baked cookies
three times on different types of baking sheets. We used an
aluminum cookie sheet, a steel cookie sheet, and a silicon cookie
sheet to see which cooked the cookies best. To measure, we used the
height the cookies rose, how soft they were, and burnt they were.
Research
• Different metals conduct heat differently.
• Metal is proven to be the best conductor of heat
and electricity.
• In our experiment, glass was proven to be the
worst conductor.
Variables
 Independent variable: The type of cookie sheet we used to bake
the cookies.
 Dependent variable: How the cookies are cooked. We will
measure how the cookies are baked by the hardness, how burnt
they are, and the height they rose.
 Constant variables: The oven, the temperature, the batter, etc.
 Control group: The aluminum cookie sheet. This is our control
group because most people cook cookies on aluminum cookie
sheets.
Hypothesis
Our hypothesis is if we bake cookies
on an aluminum sheet, than the
cookies will burn less, raise more,
and be softer than baking cookies on
a glass or silicone? baking sheet.
Materials
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1 1/2 sticks butter (12 tablespoons)
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly
packed
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 1/4 cups sifted flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 cup semi-sweet morsels
1 aluminum pan (13x18)
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1 glass pan (13x18)
1 silicone? pan (13x18)
Pencil
Notebook
Oven
Whisk
Mixer
Spoon
Measuring cups
Mixing bowl
Procedure
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Lay out all materials.
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Mix cookie dough. Use
cooks.com recipe for
chocolate chip cookies.
Make enough for three
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cookie sheets. That would be
a total of 27 cookies.
(http://www.cooks.com/rec/v 
iew/0,1610,147188235198,00.html)
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Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees
Fahrenheit.
Put nine scoops (1
tablespoon) of cookie dough 
on one of the steel sheets,
two inches apart.
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Bake the cookies for 10
minutes.
Take them out of the oven 
using heat-resistant gloves
and let them cool for three 
minutes.
After three minutes, measure
the height of the cookies in 
centimeters using a ruler.
Record the height in a
notebook.
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Flip all cookies over. See
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how dark the bottoms of the
cookies are on a scale of
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golden, brown, or black.
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Record the color of the
bottom in the notebook.
Then, squeeze them, not
pressing hard, to see the
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softness on a scale of hard or
soft.
Record the hardness in the
notebook.
Repeat stems 3-12 for the
aluminum sheet and the
silicone sheet.
Make a chart to display the
results for the first day of
testing.
Wait one day to test again.
Make sure all the sheets are
clean and have no crumbs.
Repeat steps 1-13 again.
Using the same chart as the
one used for step 14, record
the data for the second day of
testing.
Present the data recorded.
Pictures of Experiment
Data/Observations
Analyzes
Color of
Cookies
Texture of
Cookies
0.74cm
Light Gold Soft/
Doughy in
the Middle
Aluminum
0.47cm
Burnt/
Brown
Glass
0.61cm
White with Very Soft/
Golden
Squishy
Edge
Average Height (cm)
Height (cm)
Ceramic
Average
Height
(cm)
Very Hard/
Rock-Like
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
Average
Height
(cm)
Type of Pan
EXTRA OBSERVATIONS:
Ceramic: tasted good, cooked normally, and did not burn at all
Aluminum: tasted bad, really crunchy, and did not break easily
Glass: hardly baked, changes shape easily, and they hardened after about ten minutes
Conclusion
We discovered in this experiment, the hypothesis was proved
incorrect. The hypothesis stated the aluminum pan would make the
cookies rise most, keep them not burnt or doughy, and make them
just the right texture. This was proven wrong because aluminum was
the worst at all of those. It produced the shortest cookies and the
most burnt cookies. They were also very hard and crunchy. Ceramic
was the best pan to cook these cookies on at 350 degrees Fahrenheit
and for 15 minute increments. Glass was also not very good, but it
made soft, doughy cookies not hard, burnt ones like the aluminum
pan did.
Possible Experimental Errors
One possible error that we made and could’ve prevented was not
watching the timer. We had to re-cook a batch a few times before we
could measure it precisely. A possible error could’ve been the oven.
This might’ve been an error because it is old and could’ve easily
changed temperatures and we wouldn’t have known. Another error is
we could’ve measured the height of the cookies incorrectly. We tried to
be precise, but just in case we took the average of all nine.
Applications and
Recommendations
Improvements that could be made are doing the experiment more
times so you have a better look at the results, use more than one type
of cookie to see if the result is different depending on the ingredients
with the pan, and use more than one way of measuring incase the
ruler you use isn’t exact. Some recommendations are to watch the
time so you don’t have to re-do every batch of cookies and take a lot
of observations so you have a clear result. You can apply this to
everyday life because if you are baking cookies and you want to know
what pan to use, you would know which pan is best for this type of
cookie.
Works Cited
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"Cookies: Can You Blame the Burnt Ones On the Cookie Sheet?" Science Fair
Project Ideas, Answers, & Tools. Web. 14 Dec. 2010.
<http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fairprojects/project_ideas/FoodSci_p023.shtml>.
 "Glass Bakeware vs. Metal Bakeware." Recipes, Menus, Food & Wine |
YumSugar. Web. 14 Dec. 2010. <http://www.yumsugar.com/Glass-Bakewarevs-Metal-Bakeware-6512749>.
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"Good Heat Conductors | Tutorvista.com." Tutorvista.com - Online Tutoring,
Homework Help for Math, Science, English from Best Online Tutor. Web. 14
Dec. 2010. <http://www.tutorvista.com/physics/good-heat-conductors>.
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"Heat | Define Heat at Dictionary.com." Dictionary.com | Find the Meanings
and Definitions of Words at Dictionary.com. Web. 12 Dec. 2010.
<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/heat>.
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Figoni, Paula. How Baking Works: Exploring the Fundamentals of Baking
Science. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2008. 1-399. Print.