The Great Grilled Cheese Challenge: A Fun Science Experiment

Tuesday, 4/20/2010

April is National Grilled Cheese Month, which gives the beloved comfort food the spotlight it deserves. Use the grilled cheese celebration as inspiration for a delicious science experiment.

A fun take on the classic cook-off, children combine math, deductive reasoning, cooking and everyone’s favorite gooey sandwich to help learn the scientific method. Turn this activity into a fun family meal, or a great Friday lesson plan.

The Great Grilled Cheese Challenge

Objective:

• Children get an introduction into the scientific method by making 3 gooey delicious grilled cheese sandwiches.
• Children explore health and nutrition, cooking measurements and fractions, and basic cooking skills.
• Fun for the whole family or classroom.

Procedure:

1. Ask. What makes a great grilled cheese sandwich?
2. Research. Research grilled cheese sandwiches.
   
   1. What are typical ingredients used in grilled cheese?
   2. How might a person change this recipe to make it healthier or taste better?
   3. What is your favorite cheese/bread combination?
   4. Do you think adding things like bacon, turkey or tomatoes would make it taste better?
   5. Do you think adding more or less cheese or changing the type of bread would alter the taste?
3. Select three grilled cheese recipes to test. We found the three kid-friendly iterations below on Epicurious.com, but you can use any recipe you like. Also consider using the same recipe and varying the brand, type (e.g. low-fat vs. full-fat cheddar),or amount of cheese.
   
   1. Grilled Cheddar Cheese and Ham Sandwich
   2. Tuscan Grilled Cheese
   3. Grilled Cheese Sandwich
4. Hypothesize. Children make a prediction about which sandwich will taste the best, and why.
5. Test. Make each recipe.
   
   1. Kids can gather and measure ingredients.
   2. An adult should supervise heating the sandwich on the stove
6. Conduct the Poll. Give a small portion of each sandwich to the “test subjects” (a.k.a. classmates or family members). Ask them to rate each sandwich on a scale of 1-5 based upon:
   
   1. Taste
   2. Appearance
   3. Texture
   4. Ask each test subject why they chose the sandwich that they did.
7. Results. Which sandwich is the winner?
8. Conclusion. What did you learn about grilled cheese sandwiches?
   
   1. Was there a clear reason the winning sandwich was the favorite?
   2. Encourage kids to think critically about why a certain sandwich was the favorite.
   3. How could the sandwich recipes be improved based upon the results?

Happy Grilled Cheese Month! Share the results of your Great Grilled Cheese Challenge with us on Walden.com!

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