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