Grade 3 Week 40

For the past few weeks in IPC lab we have been discussing different ingredients in chocolate. We learned that all the chocolate bars we tasted contained sugar, cocoa butter, and an emulsifier. We talked about the importance of these ingredients. We tasted pure cocoa and found it to be bitter and crumbly. Adding sugar and fat makes the chocolate sweet and creamy. An emulsifier helps the ingredients stay mixed.  

We also talked about the challenge of keeping your sweet creamy chocolate from melting in your hand. We found out that one solution to this problem is covering the chocolate in a candy coating. We looked at M and Ms and Smarties. Did you know that Smarties were colored with plants? These include: hibiscus black carrot, lemon, radish, red cabbage, safflower and a blue algae. The are not as bright as M and Ms.

We wondered if there would be the same number of each color in all the mini Smarties boxes we had. Students made some predictions and then counted and made graphs.

A graph made with Smarties. Students drew graphs as well and we are making a pooled graph on the teacher computer. 

Visualizing numbers with Smarties.

In the coming weeks we will investigate melting and we will make our own chocolate with coconut oil added to make it melt at a lower temperature. We will also talk about what materials make suitable packaging for chocolate. This is a GREAT unit.

Here are some learning objectives from the chocolate unit.

2.1      Be able to carry out simple investigations

           • Suggesting ways of collecting evidence

           • Recording and communicating their observations and findings in a variety of ways

           • Explaining their observations and findings

2.2       Be able to gather information from simple texts

2.31     Be able to compare common materials and objects according to their properties

2.34     Understand that different materials are suited for different purposes