1. A Not So Dense Chocolate Bar Stephanie Stewart Bridgetown Middle School, 8th grade Science
CEEMS is funded by the National Science Foundation, grant #
Big Idea/Essential Question
Unit Activity Implementation
Student Work and Results
Big Idea:
America Loves Chocolate
Essential Question:
How can you engineer a chocolate bar that is the least dense using only 4 ingredients?
Design and innovate a low density chocolate bar that has only 4 ingredients with a budget of $5.00.
Hook:
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory video clip.
How Chocolate Is Made video clip.
Gathering Research:
Students research through WebQuests on different candy bar ingredients, densities of ingredients, and current chocolate bar recipes/designs to generate ideas for their own designs.
Students work together to design and build a low density chocolate bar
Challenge
Unit Structure
Engineering Design Process
Reflection
Guided Questions:
What is density?
What is mass?
What is volume?
How can you reduce an object’s density?
Applications- students design and develop an innovative, low density chocolate bar
Careers- students learn about jobs that use the engineering design process to solve problems and develop products that will appeal to consumers
Societal Impact- students use research to understand marketing strategies to appeal to all audiences.
Overall, this unit was a success. My students were engaged and excited through the entire Engineering Design Process. The students applied the content to design and test an innovative chocolate bar that will appeal to American consumers.
In the future, I would prepare my challenge for students with nut allergies. I would also like to include time for a guest speaker that works within the field.
Standards:
Earth’s Systems: Composition and Properties
Objectives:
Students will apply what they learn about mass, volume, and density to design an innovative, low density chocolate bar using only 4 ingredients.
Sketching chocolate bar designs
Testing solutions
Communicating chocolate bar designs