Science Fair ProjectCooking/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

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)

1 glass pan (13x18) 1 silicone? pan (13x18) Pencil Notebook Oven Whisk Mixer Spoon Measuring cups Mixing bowl

Procedure Lay out all materials. Mix cookie dough. Use

cooks.com recipe for chocolate chip cookies. Make enough for three cookie sheets. That would be a total of 27 cookies.

(http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1610,147188-235198,00.html)

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Put nine scoops (1 tablespoon) of cookie dough on one of the steel sheets, two inches apart.

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.

Flip all cookies over. See how dark the bottoms of the cookies are on a scale of golden, brown, or black.

Record the color of the bottom in the notebook.

Then, squeeze them, not pressing hard, to see the

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/ObservationsAnalyzes

Average Height (cm)

Color of Cookies

Texture of Cookies

Ceramic 0.74cm Light Gold Soft/ Doughy in the Middle

Aluminum 0.47cm Burnt/ Brown

Very Hard/ Rock-Like

Glass 0.61cm White with Golden Edge

Very Soft/ Squishy

Ceram

ic

Alum

inum

Glass

00.20.40.60.8

Average Height (cm)

Average Height (cm)

Type of Pan

Hei

ght

(cm

)EXTRA OBSERVATIONS:

Ceramic: tasted good, cooked normally, and did not burn at allAluminum: tasted bad, really crunchy, and did not break easilyGlass: 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 "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-fair-projects/project_ideas/

FoodSci_p023.shtml>.

"Glass Bakeware vs. Metal Bakeware." Recipes, Menus, Food & Wine | YumSugar. Web. 14 Dec. 2010. <http://www.yumsugar.com/Glass-Bakeware-

vs-Metal-Bakeware-6512749>.

"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>.

"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>.

Figoni, Paula. How Baking Works: Exploring the Fundamentals of Baking Science. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2008. 1-399. Print.