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Investigation 8:
How can we
produce
better foods?
Chefs and chemists alike must scale recipes precisely. This phase focuses on the mole concept and how the quantities of ingredients (mass, moles, volume) affect food outcomes. You’ll convert measurements, analyze nutritional content, and begin testing variations in your substituted recipe.
Task: Calculate the amounts of ingredients (in grams, moles, etc.) in a standard and modified recipe. Determine what changes when an ingredient is swapped.
Driving Question:
🧪 How do the structure and properties of foods change as their components change?
Overview: This investigation is all about measuring matter in a scientific way. You'll learn how to use the mole as a counting unit, convert between mass, moles, and particles, and calculate molar mass. You'll also explore how gas volume relates to moles and practice using conversion factors to solve real chemistry problems.
How Chemists Measure the Invisible
How Chemists Measure the Invisible
Why do we quantify matter in different ways? Whether we're measuring by mass, volume, or number of particles, how we measure can change what we understand—and how we use that information in science and in real life.
The Mole Concept
EQ: How can we count incredibly tiny particles like atoms in a practical way?
The mole is a counting unit that allows chemists to group atoms or molecules in quantities large enough to measure and use in real life.
Since individual particles are too small to count, using the mole gives us a way to work with matter at a useful scale—just like counting eggs by the dozen.
📖 Textbook: 262-269
✏️ Notes
🔑 Vocabulary:
Mole Avogadro's number
Molar mass
Molar Relationships
EQ: How do we convert between mass, moles, and volume to describe the amount of a substance?
By using molar mass and molar volume, chemists can move between grams, moles, liters, and particles to describe the same amount of matter in different ways.
Different types of measurements are useful for different contexts—volume for gases, mass for solids, and moles for balanced reactions.
📖 Textbook: 271-279
✏️ Notes
Assignments:
🔑 Vocabulary:
Conversion factor Molar volume
Density
Percent Composition and Empirical Formulas
EQ: How can we describe a compound’s composition using ratios and percentages?
Percent composition shows how much of each element is in a compound by mass, while empirical formulas represent the simplest whole-number ratio of elements.
Percentages help us compare what's inside a substance—like identifying low-sugar or high-protein food options based on chemical makeup.
📖 Textbook: 280-289
✏️ Notes
Assignments:
🔑 Vocabulary:
Percent composition Empirical formula
Molecular formula
Law of definite proportions
Law of constant composition
Helpful Links:
Concentrations of Solutions
EQ: How do we describe how much of a substance is dissolved in a solution?
Concentration is a measure of how much solute is present in a given volume of solution and is often expressed in molarity.
Whether mixing a sports drink or a cleaning solution, we quantify concentration to ensure it works correctly and safely.
📖 Textbook: 291-299
✏️ Notes
Assignments:
🔑 Vocabulary:
Concentration Molarity
Dilution Percent by volume %(v/v)
Percent by mass %(m/m)
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