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Learning Goals & Products

Learning Goals

1

Students will be able to formulate an investigable question about how a chosen ingredient, cooking technique, and variable affect a recipe’s outcomes.

2

Students will be able to design and follow a precise multistep cooking procedure for a classroom-friendly recipe that controls one variable.

3

Students will be able to collect and document observations, measurements, and sensory data from cooking trials using notes, photos, diagrams, or video.

4

Students will be able to analyze how food biology, including ingredient structure and composition, changes during cooking.

5

Students will be able to explain how cooking chemistry changes ingredients during a recipe, such as denaturation, gelatinization, browning, dissolution, or fermentation.

6

Students will be able to interpret how heat transfer, motion, and timing affect cooking through conduction, convection, radiation, and mechanical mixing.

7

Students will be able to synthesize research and trial evidence to justify recipe revisions and final design choices.

8

Students will be able to evaluate limitations, conflicts, and uncertainties in their cooking investigations and propose next questions.

Products

individual

Personal Kitchen Science Investigation Notebook

Students compile a research-and-trial notebook for one recipe, documenting their question, source notes, method, observations, data, analysis, and revisions. The notebook shows how the ingredient’s biology, the cooking chemistry, and the physics of heat transfer explain the final result.

team

Recipe Science Presentation and Tested Recipe Card for a Community Audience

Teams present a shared investigation report and a classroom-tested recipe card tailored for school food staff or a community partner. The product explains the team’s evidence, methods, visual data, conclusions, limitations, and how each member’s individual findings shaped the final recipe.

Rubric
Competency Progression Rubric Competency-first rubric
Category
Learning Goal
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4
New York Portrait of a Graduate
Creative Innovator
  • I can generate a clear, testable question or problem about how cooking variables might change taste, safety, or practicality for a real audience, using the mystery-taste lab and class demos as my starting point.
  • I can plan a simple investigation that tests one variable at a time and explain how my prediction connects to information from multiple sources (texts, demonstrations, or observations) about the biology/chemistry/physics involved.
  • I can use research and trial results to refine my hypothesis and investigation plan, identify what I changed and why (including special cases for safety or procedure), and explain how evidence supports or challenges my original idea.
  • I can independently adapt my recipe and method in response to data and conflicting information, justify revisions with synthesized evidence, and broaden or narrow the inquiry as needed to improve flavor, safety, affordability, and cultural fit for my community partner.
New York Portrait of a Graduate
Effective Communicator
  • I can share my initial claims about how ingredient biology, cooking chemistry, and heat-transfer physics affect taste and safety, using simple scientific words and evidence from my mystery-taste lab notes
  • I can describe what I observed in my own words and ask a focused question I want my research to answer.
  • I can conduct research using multiple sources, choose the most relevant information, and synthesize it into clear, accurate explanations for my recipe choices
  • I can follow a multistep procedure precisely, record observations and measurements I take, and communicate my results with annotated photos or a process update that explains what I changed and why.
  • I can develop and revise an evidence-based explanation by comparing my trial observations to research claims and resolving conflicts using additional evidence when needed
  • I can communicate my thinking clearly to peers and adults by referencing specific data (e.g., texture/aroma/flavor differences from trials), presenting organized steps, and responding to feedback to improve my method and writing.
  • I can independently produce a polished, audience-ready communication package (recipe card and pitch) that explains the full bio-chem-phys story of each step with accurate terminology and justified design decisions
  • I can integrate findings from experiments and multiple sources, evaluate the strength of my evidence, and clearly pitch practical improvements for a real audience (e.g., school food staff or a community partner) using precise, persuasive language.