Students complete an inquiry lab, typically at home or in a lab kitchen. They can split a recipe into fourths, use the original as a control and modify three other versions, increasing, decreasing or changing one ingredient. For example, we have found that reducing the butter by half or reducing the sugar by half does not significantly change the overall quality of baked sweets and can reduce their negative health impacts.

Students use the engineering design process to prepare a sample of gluep that can best meet their goal.

In this lesson, students will learn about the different properties of paper towels and design a method for testing paper towel absorbency and strength.