Food Science B

[chalker]

On the 2012 Cupcake Scoring Thingamabobber, it says that students need to do a minimum of the following 9 experiments, test the viscosity, and record the results. Is this judged for the competition and do we need to do this during the test?
By the way, our competition is tomorrow so it'd be great if anyone who knew responded ASAP.

Cupcakes were in the draft rules, but not the final rules. You need to get a copy of the published rules from your coach.

[Satyrcentaur]

On the 2012 Cupcake Scoring Thingamabobber, it says that students need to do a minimum of the following 9 experiments, test the viscosity, and record the results. Is this judged for the competition and do we need to do this during the test?
By the way, our competition is tomorrow so it'd be great if anyone who knew responded ASAP.

Cupcakes were in the draft rules, but not the final rules. You need to get a copy of the published rules from your coach.

Thanks, we were just a bit confused and stressed

[Skink]

Cupcakes were in the draft rules, but not the final rules. You need to get a copy of the published rules from your coach.

chalker, this really needs to be made clearer on the National site in the future since not all folks are as familiar with Science Olympiad (that the published rules rule, essentially) as, say, those who regularly post here. This has thrown off several people in my personal experience, though I do not know how widespread the confusion has been.

[chalker]

chalker, this really needs to be made clearer on the National site in the future since not all folks are as familiar with Science Olympiad (that the published rules rule, essentially) as, say, those who regularly post here. This has thrown off several people in my personal experience, though I do not know how widespread the confusion has been.

Every event page on soinc.org starts with these 2 sentences:

"The information on this page should not be interpreted as an extension of the rules. The official rules in the current Rules Manual take precedence."

How can we be more explicit than that?

[Skink]

That seems to be a rhetorical question, but I'll attempt to answer it anyways: removal of the material that throws some parents and coaches off or, at least, shoving it into a deep, dark corner of the page. Those two sentences are based on the assumption that A)folks are reading them and B)they take them to heart. I suppose reason for confusion (people having A but not B, if even A) is that, despite those two sentences, the majority of other event pages on the National site are populated with relevant information labeled by applicable year, in several cases. Then, you have Food Science, a new event that technically should not have artifacts from previous seasons sitting around to throw people off, with the required cupcake experiments handout.

I understand that it may be logistically impossible to attack this problem, but it's there, nonetheless. How many people do you see posting on this forum who have not read the rules closely, let alone the National site page?

[i8maps]

Does anyone know how to calculate the calorie content in food with the nutrition label? My partner and I have been trying for a while and we always are slightly off.

[soinc]

So what's the point of Food Science anyway?

[KittenPsychology]

To learn about food. And science. And sciency food. Also the makeup of food. And stuff.

[Sunshine Ninja]

To learn about food. And science. And sciency food. Also the makeup of food. And stuff.

After doing FS for two years.... that is still the best explanation there is! So glad I do not have FS this yr!

[Queen-Of-Death]

To learn about food. And science. And sciency food. Also the makeup of food. And stuff.

After doing FS for two years.... that is still the best explanation there is! So glad I do not have FS this yr!

I do and two weeks before state.

[tuftedtitmouse12]

Alright, I just got placed into this event for States. I don't have a copy of the rules yet, but with less than 5 weeks till States, what are some quick things you suggest I do?

EDIT: I can't cook.

[Skink]

Alright, I just got placed into this event for States. I don't have a copy of the rules yet, but with less than 5 weeks till States, what are some quick things you suggest I do?

Well, uh...you've got some work to do. Study up on the topics listed in 3e of the rules, and treat 3a like the list in an ID event. Instead, in this one, you need to know which group each Approved Ingredient comes from and what manipulating it does to your baked good.

What I mean is that you could make a lot of cupcakes to notice this. If you double a leavening agent, what happens? If you leave out any liquid, what happens? It shouldn't matter too much what you make (cupcakes, biscuits, pancakes, etc.) because you should be able to see the same effect in all of them, just some are more apparent in different kinds of baked goods. The best part is, I'll bet your team has already done all this! Get the binder, and see what they have. Work from there.

Oh yeah, be able to use their device to measure viscosity of an unknown fluid from the list using the standard curve. You're throwing away easy points if you don't.

EDIT: I can't cook. I've burned out our microwave so many times my parents will wait till I'm off to college to buy a new microwave. Also, I'm not the sort of person you'd trust with a stove and fire...

That's fine. I would hope they don't make you make a cupcake on-site (they did at at least one invitational)...

[GoNerdHerd]

How do you calculate viscosity in cP? I'm not a math person and all the equations confuse me. I understand it is time to break flow but how do you do pascal seconds, that sort of thing? Thanks.

[Skink]

You don't. You "estimate" it from your standard curve. Make your homemade viscometer, then make that graph of viscosity versus time. You then run the mystery fluid through your viscometer and time how long it takes. Find the point on your curve that corresponds to that time. The viscosity value for that point is the viscosity of your mystery sample.

This seems to be causing a lot of confusion and trouble. I'm considering editing how this is all done in a step-by-step fashion into the wiki. Would anyone find that helpful?

[135scioly]

Yes!!! That wouod be so helpful! When I first started Food Sci, it took me FOREVER to figure that out! I know now many ppl have probabky figured it out since regionals are coming up/passed, but for the future, it would help a lot! Thanks.