Summary

This activity will help to reinforce the importance of scientific measurement and apply it to the introduction of chemical reactions. Using an example of baking a single batch of cupcakes, students will plan for a larger production scale in a commercial bakery. This will help to introduce the idea of producing a reaction at the lab bench and converting it to mass production. In addition this activity investigates how chemistry is used in everyday life and challenges students to consider potentials errors that may occur when completing chemical reactions in the kitchen.

Grade Level

High or Middle School

NGSS Alignment

This activity will help prepare your students to meet the performance expectations in the following standards:

• MS-ETS1-2: Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well the meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
• HS-PS1-5: Apply scientific principles and evidence to provide an explanation about the effects of changing the temperature or concentration of the reacting particles on the rate at which a reaction occurs.
• Scientific and Engineering Practices:
  • Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking
  • Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information

Objectives

By the end of this activity, students should be able to

• Convert measurements from English to the International Units of Measurement (Metric).
• Scale up measurements for a standard recipe to a larger quantity.
• Identify and discuss potential problems encountered with scaling up a product from bench to bakery (small to larger quantities).

Chemistry Topics

This activity supports students’ understanding of

• Measurement
• Dimensional Analysis
• Matter
• Mixtures
• Observations
• Physical Properties
• Chemical Properties
• Physical Change
• Chemical Change

Time

Teacher Preparation: 10 minutes

Lesson: 60-75 minutes

Materials

• Student Handout
• PowerPoint Presentation

Safety

• No specific safety precautions need to be observed for this activity.

Teacher Notes

• This lesson can be used in part or in whole. The activity is broken down into two tasks. Depending on how in depth the teacher wishes to get the activity can take one to three 45 minute periods.
• The time of preparation for a teacher will increase if he/she wishes to bake examples of overbaked, under-baked, unrisen, or limited/missing ingredient cupcakes for the students, or bring in the ingredients to look at, to help jump start their thought process.
• To reduce time for preparation it is suggested that teachers use the PowerPoint presentation to illustrate the ingredients and what might go wrong while baking.
• This activity can be used in a number places in different units of the chemistry curriculum.
  • This can be used to introduce conversions and dimensional analysis using references that students understand.
  • This can be used to introduce the scientific method in the way that students will see science as a series of problem solving or trouble shooting issues.
  • This can be used to introduce students to the ideas behind physical properties/changes and chemical properties/changes.
  • This can be used to introduce students to stoichiometry as the link connects to an activity which uses a cookie recipe.
• Conversions are an essential part of chemistry, going from larger to smaller units. Students need to know how to convert in chemistry, but unfortunately many of them don’t understand how to convert within the metric system. It is essential that students understand the International Unit of Measurement (Metric) since only three countries in the world use the English standard units (the United States of America, Liberia, and Myanmar). It is important to use the units of measurements that the rest of the world uses when trading on an international scale.
• In this activity, students will tackle the real-world problems associated with taking a successful product from a small-scale production and a commercial or industrial level of production. The rationale for this approach came out of observations at a Dow Chemical facility and the process of troubleshooting that is needed to move a product through this process. Students may need guidance in coming up with ideas and scaffold support.
• The teacher can do a lot with this activity. It starts out with students having to make conversions for a recipe between the English standard and Metric. Teachers can discuss the physical properties/changes and the chemical properties/changes that occur with the preparing and baking of the cupcakes. Teachers may take this to the next level by having students discuss the problems that will occur with upscaling the product from one batch of 24 to 200 for sale (see the trouble shooting bullet below). Finally the teacher can extend this to the issues surrounding stoichiometry and limiting factors (see links below).
• AACT Resources for Conversions:
  • The Temperature Guys Video
  • Math and Measurements
  • Unit Conversion Online Tutorial
  • Dimensional Analysis Unit Conversion
  • Bringing Real-Life Context to Chemical Math
  • A Student Centered, Web Based Approach to Teaching Unit Conversions
  • Cookie Stoichiometry
• Troubleshooting: The following ideas should come up when looking at problems needed to upscale the cupcakes to mass production.
  • America Test Kitchen explains issues with scaling up (free trial for 14 days)
  • Refer to the notes within the provided PowerPoint presentation for additional visual examples and explanation.
  • Cooking Temperatures:
    • Not every oven is the same temperature (just because it says 350 ^oF doesn’t mean it is 350 ^oF).
    • There will be a difference in cooking time for small batches vs. large batches.
    • There are gas ovens and electric ovens.
    • Convection ovens use a fan to distribute the heat evenly whereas those with a heating element don’t do the same thing.
    • Some ovens have uneven zones of heating.
  • Mixing:
    • A whisk for one dozen won’t work with a larger batch.
    • Type of mixers used.
    • Hand mixing vs. electronic mixer.
    • Packing flour vs. leveling off the flour in a cup.
  • Ingredients:
    • Age of ingredients (older baking powder doesn’t work as well as new baking powder since it has about a 6 month shelf life).
    • Sifted vs. un-sifted flour.
    • Type of flour used (baking flour has a little cornstarch added to it to make it smoother).
    • Egg size impacts the product (small eggs, medium eggs, large eggs)
    • Type of oil used (Canola, Vegetable, Corn, or Olive Oil).
    • Milk (whole, 2% or 1%)
    • Can there be substitutes for eggs or oil? Mayonnaise is a mixture of eggs, oil and a little lemon so can this be used?
    • Can the cupcakes be made gluten free?
    • Generic vs. Brand name ingredients?
  • Cooking Utensils:
    • Aluminum vs. steel pans.
    • Color or darkness of pans.
    • Seasoned pans vs. non-seasoned pans.
    • Corrugated bottoms vs. flat.