Cooking and Chemistry
Here's my point. If I were asked to make cookies it would be relatively simple; I follow the recipe, combine ingredients, cook them, and enjoy! Why should chemistry be any different? Chemistry involves several ingredients, they just happen to be called things like sodium bicarbonate instead of baking soda. Like baking, I know that there are "recipes" out there for certain chemical reactions. These recipes in chemistry are called reaction equations. All that tells me is what ratio I need to combine my ingredients to make whatever it is I'm aiming to make. Just like baking, there are instructions about how to mix them, how to use certain techniques that will make it turn out just right! Eventually, I learned how to tweak chemistry recipes just like my perfect brownies. Chemistry too has you "cook" things sometimes by placing it on a Bunsen Burner or a hot plate. In all actuality, cooking/baking follows the same kinds of steps that chemists do. Perhaps later we'll spend some time making some baked goods in class to see if you can use your new-found chemistry skills to cook!