Objective:
The students will follow a recipe to make cookies and make observations about the changes in the ingredients.

Materials

• A simple cookie recipe.  Use one of the following links for suggestions: Family Fun or Kids in the Kitchen (It's best to pick a recipe that needs to be baked or refrigerated so the students may make observations about the changes in the dough.)

• The ingredients or materials for baking the chosen cookie.

• The Science of Cookies Worksheet.

Procedure

1. Divide the students into groups or work as a whole class, depending on the age of the students.

2. Pass out the recipe, the ingredients, the materials for making the dough, and the Science of Cookies Worksheet.

3. Have the students work together as a group, or as a whole class to make the cookie dough.  The Science of Cookies Worksheet should be completed in conjunction with making the cookies.

Other Lesson Ideas

1. Bake two different batches of cookies.  In one of the recipes, leave out an ingredient, such as butter or baking soda, and note the differences in the completed cookies.

2. Read a simple cookie recipe and determine where the ingredients originated.  For example, flour came from wheat which grows in a field, butter comes from cream, which comes from a cow, etc.  The students may draw the ingredients in their different stages from how they began to how they got to the grocery store shelves.