Questions and Answers

1. What was the major objective of your project and what was your plan to achieve it?

My major objective was to see how fast it would take for water to boil on different heat settings. I did this by taking three pots with clear lids and filling them up with one cup of water each and then putting them on the stove each with a different heat setting. One was high, one was medium and one was low, then  would time how long it took for each pot of water to boil. After it boiled I would turn off the stove and write down what the time was and then use the candy thermometer to see what the water's temperature was and then write that down to and I did this every time a pot boiled and then compared all the results.

            a. Was that goal the result of any specific situation, experience, or problem you encountered? 

I didn't experience many problems with my experiment, although one thing that was a slight problem was that Pot 3 boiled very little so that it was hard to tell that it was even boiling.

            b. Were you trying to solve a problem, answer a question, or test a hypothesis?

I was trying to solve somewhat of a problem for me at least because for me in the morning I usually have to boil water for my lunch for school so when I need to multitask to get things done in the morning it is helpful to either have the water boil fast so I can move on to other things or for it to be slowly so I can get other things done and out of the way so I can spend more time on my pasta which is what the water is usually for.

 

2. What were the major tasks you had to perform in order to complete your project?

There weren't very hard tasks to do except it I did have to constantly check if the water was boiling and sometimes when I looked at the candy thermometer, that I used instead of a baking thermometer, it was hard to see where the line was because if you were at a certain angle you couldn't see where the line was.

            a. For teams, describe what each member worked on.

N/A

3. What is new or novel about your project?

My project is just trying to figure out what amount of time it takes for water to boil on my stove which isn't very difficult to figure out except  I will most likely use this information for a long time because it is a very helpful thing to know and some experiments that I have done for science fair in earlier years aren't very helpful knowledge for everyday life.

            a. Is there some aspect of your project's objective, or how you achieved it that you haven't done before?

My project may not be one of the first projects that pop into someones head when they first think of science fair because it is a very easy question to figure out except I was mostly trying to find the time not the right heat setting as I might have said. Even so this project is not something that is a super original concept I am sorry to say.

            b. Is your project's objective, or the way you implemented it, different from anything you have seen?

The difference from what I did from what I've seen other people do is different because instead of just the time I also found out how hot the water was because that showed me what temperature was most likely needed for water to boil.

            c. If you believe your work to be unique in some way, what research have you done to confirm that it is?

My project is original I guess but it is not a very hard question to figure out what the answer would be. Because people can usually guess what temperature would make water boil the fastest if they have cooking experience.

 

4. What was the most challenging part of completing your project?

Sometimes it was hard to get the temperature of the water because you possibly had to reach behind another pot, and you had to be careful that you didn't harm yourself.

            a. What problems did you encounter, and how did you overcome them?

It was difficult to get the exact time because if you looked away for even just a minute you could miss the water boiling and not get the right time without even knowing that you have the wrong time.

            b. What did you learn from overcoming these problems?

I learned that when you do a science project you really shouldn't have any unnecessary distractions happening around you if you can because you need to give your whole attention to the experiment and nothing else.

5. If you were going to do this project again, are there any things you would you do differently the next time?

If I was going to do this again I might have added more water and done it in pots that were all the same size because that was a variable I didn't control and I should have, also what I might do differently if I were to do it again is to get the right size lids for each pot because since I needed clear lids I didn't have the right size for all the pot. So if I were to do it again maybe I could use the same lid and pot for it but then I may need to take into account other variables that may need to be considered and controlled.

6. Did working on this project give you any ideas for other projects?

Yes, one idea it gave me is to see how fast the water boils with different amounts of water but on the same heat setting and this could be great. follow up project and it could help me answer my question further.

7. How did COVID-19 affect the completion of your project?

Covid did not affect my project at all because it was inside my house and could have been done in one evening and I didn't have to plan around someone being sick or having covid in in house.