1. Science Fair Project Cooking/Baking Science Lovin’ From the Oven
Tina Kinnerup & Molly Bohannon

2. Statement of the Problem
Do different types of metal conduct heat differently?

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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

8. Procedure Lay out all materials.
Take them out of the oven using heat-resistant gloves and let them cool for three minutes.
Record the hardness in the notebook.
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.
Repeat stems 3-12 for the aluminum sheet and the silicone sheet.
After three minutes, measure the height of the cookies in centimeters using a ruler.
Make a chart to display the results for the first day of testing. (
Record the height in a notebook.
Wait one day to test again.
Flip all cookies over. See how dark the bottoms of the cookies are on a scale of golden, brown, or black.
Make sure all the sheets are clean and have no crumbs.
Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Repeat steps 1-13 again.
Put nine scoops (1 tablespoon) of cookie dough on one of the steel sheets, two inches apart.
Using the same chart as the one used for step 14, record the data for the second day of testing.
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.
Bake the cookies for 10 minutes.
Present the data recorded.

9. Pictures of Experiment

10. Data/Observations Analyzes
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
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

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. Works Cited
"Cookies: Can You Blame the Burnt Ones On the Cookie Sheet?" Science Fair Project Ideas, Answers, & Tools. Web. 14 Dec <
"Glass Bakeware vs. Metal Bakeware." Recipes, Menus, Food & Wine | YumSugar. Web. 14 Dec <
"Good Heat Conductors | Tutorvista.com." Tutorvista.com - Online Tutoring, Homework Help for Math, Science, English from Best Online Tutor. Web. 14 Dec <
"Heat | Define Heat at Dictionary.com." Dictionary.com | Find the Meanings and Definitions of Words at Dictionary.com. Web. 12 Dec <
Figoni, Paula. How Baking Works: Exploring the Fundamentals of Baking Science. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, Print.