Online Science-athon: The Chocolate Melt

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Abstract: The Online Science-athon offers elementary and middle-grade students opportunities to discover the science in their daily lives. Presented as challenges, the Science-athon asks students to investigate their world in ways that are engaging and fun, easy for teachers to incorporate into their teaching, and instructive. Students doing the Chocolate Melt decide on a container-tin can, cardboard box, plastic bucket, paper bag, or similar object-to use as a solar cooker. Then they consider how to melt a refrigerated standard-size milk chocolate chip that has been placed on the end of a toothpick inside the cooker in as short a time as possible. This includes figuring out how to reshape the container so that the heat from the sun is concentrated on the chocolate chip, deciding what colors and textures to use for lining inside surfaces and insulating the cooker, examining where to put the chocolate chip, and identifying how to point the cooker at the sun. Reviewing scientific information helps students improve the effectiveness of their cooker designs and make predictions about the ones they think will cook the most rapidly. On Chocolate Melting Day, students collect and record data to share with other students doing the challenge.

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