Food and Cooking: Transformations Module Overview

While watching your grandmother in the kitchen did you notice that she put a pinch of salt in the pot when she was cooking dinner? She may have done that for a reason other than flavor. Do you want to know why? In this module we will look at energy changes and energy transformations. We will look at the science behind how we cook the food that we eat and why some methods are better than others. We will also see how molecules behave when energy is applied and how their motion determines how our food is prepared. We will look at the history behind our cooking methods and see what might come in the future. Who knows, you might even find out your grandmother's secret!

Essential Questions

What is radiation?
What is conduction?
What is convection?
How are the methods of energy transfer similar to each other? How are they different?
How can we use radiation, conduction, and convection to transfer heat efficiently during cooking?

Key Terms

Chemical Change - A change that involves the rearrangement of atoms to form a new substance
Combustibility- Capable of igniting and burning in the presence of oxygen
Conduction- When molecules exchange energy directly by contact
Conservation of energy- Energy is not created or destroyed, but only changes form
Convection- The movement of energy in cells that move in a fluid motion within liquids, gasses and plasma
Energy- The ability to do work
Heat flow- Energy travels in the form of heat from a relatively warm location to a relatively cool location. i.e. cold is the absence of heat
Potential energy- Stored energy that can be used to do work
Kinetic energy- Energy of movement that is doing work
Precipitate- A product of a chemical reaction that in not soluble in a solution
Radiation- The transport of energy through space without contact between molecules
Reactivity- The natural tendency of an atom, compound or molecule to interact with another atom, compound or molecule to form a new chemical substance

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