Blog Six

For my SRP, today, I finalised my Part A Section, ensuring that I had met all requirements in the marking criteria. I re-read over all of my blogs also but I noticed that I forgot to include the feedback that was given to me by the Cadbury Company, when I had emailed them with curiosity of finding the Cocoa Butter Content present in their Milk, Dark and White Blocks of Chocolate. Below is the email that was replied back to me. Although it wasn’t much of a help, I am glad that their Customer Service is very approachable for all people and in particular for stressful students.

 

 

I visited the three websites that were recommended and provided to me in the email, but I found that they were mainly formed on different types of brands and historical information of the chocolate types.  

Following this, I completed my Experimental Report, writing up my Risk Assessment and my Experimental Procedure. It took quite some time to do so, because thinking of possible hazards was difficult due to my inexperience in the kitchen, and because my experiment is most likely going to be carried out within my kitchen, this hindered more on the time length too.

 

Risk Assessment

 

Experimental Procedure (Method)

1)     Firstly, fill up the kettle with 1.5L worth of tap water and put it on charge to heat.   

2)      Whilst the water is heating, break one row from one Cadbury block of chocolate. This should be 4 squares with 25g/square. 

3)     Once the water has heated, pour this into a regular saucepan, placed on the stove over a medium heat.

4)     Wait for the water to boil. You will know when it has started boiling because bubbles will slowly rise to the surface of the water.   

5)    Then, measure the temperature of the water using the digital thermometer. The kettle and stove should boil the water to the same temperature; however you must record this result for each trial to adhere to consistency and reliability rules.

6)     Place the row of chocolate in the stainless steel bowl and have this put over the saucepan filled with the boiling water.

7)     With the timer, start timing how long it takes for the chocolate to melt completely once the bowl is placed in the saucepan. Make sure to keep the stove running on the medium heat.

8)     Using the wooden spoon, gently, stir the chocolate when it begins to melt. However, make sure that you do not break down the chocolate as it ruins the purpose of melting.

9)     Record the result of how long it takes for the entire row of chocolate to melt, and stop timing when the chocolate has completely melted.

10)  Repeat this for the other two different types of chocolates.

11)  Also, remember to have at least 5 trials for each chocolate.   

 

 

 

 

 

Blog Five

Today, I started writing up my Experimental Report. This included writing a summary of my identified problem, establishing an aim and a hypothesis, identifying my variables and planning my equipment list. At the moment, I am feeling unstable with my experiment and exactly how it will work out and what type of feedback that Mrs Kleine will give back to me, as if I just started to realise the true importance and significance of this task, and the work measure required to undergo the assignment. I have or at least hope that I have thought about every aspect of the assignment and experiment carefully because I do not want to have to go back and make dramatic modifications that require changing the approach of the experiment completely, such as rethinking of a problem. As well as this, I am unsure of my hypothesis; I do not know whether I have hypothesised correctly or have just stated a prediction. All in all, I am glad that Part A is not given a formal mark, and is only being judged by Mrs Kleine so that I can assess and take aboard feedback, to further improve my experiment and grades.  

Step 1: Identifying a Problem

My problem is investigating whether the amount of Cocoa Butter affects the Melting Speeds (how long it take to melt completely) of Different Types of Chocolates. In this experiment I must consider what types of chocolate I will be using to ensure that I adhere to my question ‘different types’. This means that I need to include a variety of chocolates and not change the brand. Also, I have to consider the varying aspects and properties of Cocoa Butter and if it does prove to melt chocolate, how does it do so. 

 Step 3: Writing Your Hypothesis

Hypothesis: The more Cocoa Butter present within the Chocolate, the faster it will melt.

Step 4: Designing the Investigation

Aim: To investigate whether the amount of Cocoa Butter found within different types of Chocolates (Milk, Dark, White), will affect their melting speeds.

Variables
Independent Variable: My Independent Variable is the type of chocolate that I will be using; milk, dark and white.
Dependant Variable: My Dependant Variable is measuring how long it takes for each different type of chocolate to melt completely.
Controlled Variable: My Controlled Variables include the brand of Chocolate that is being used (Cadbury), the serving size; 25g per square, the amount of chocolate being used for each trial; 100g in total (one row), and the temperature of the water used in melting the chocolate. 

Equipment List:

·         Regular Sauce Pan                                           

·         Regular Stainless Steel Bowl

·         Wooden Spoon

·         Digital Thermometer

·         Kettle

·         1.5L Cold Tap Water for each trial

·         Cadbury 25g White, Milk, Dark Chocolate Blocks

·         Stopwatch with 01. Second Accuracy