Project by: Shoshi Fine (9th Grade), Samantha Sapira (9th Grade)
Project Advisor: Jessica Prohías Gardiner
Student(s)’s Advisor(s): Shafeiq and Antonio
Description of the Project:
We merged two of our interests to create our project. First, baking. We tried 6 different chocolate chip cookie recipes, and had our peers try them to find the best one. Then, we created a website to showcase our results. We used HTML to code it.
Click image to view the website and code:
Update on Progress from Weeks 1-3 (include any photos or video if relevant):
Through these three weeks, we’ve baked 2 recipes and tracked which cookie recipe our classmates have liked the most.
Reflection:
To start our honors project, we first had to plan out what we wanted to do. We had the basis of our project in mind, but we needed to figure out specifics. First, we scheduled meeting times and decided that we would each make one batch of cookies per week, for three weeks. This meant we needed six cookie recipes. During week 3, we planned to use recipes we were familiar with, to start off easy. Week 4, we were doing a recommendation week. Week 5 we wanted to switch up the style; we chose a copycat Levain cookie, and another classic. We also created our spreadsheet and a method of recording data. We had everyone who tried the cookies rate them from 1-10 in two categories; taste and texture. We recorded our results on our phones and transferred them into a google spreadsheet later. In weeks 1-3, we made the first two batches of cookies. The recipes used were Allrecipes “Best Chocolate Chip Cookies” and Bon Appetit’s “Best Chocolate Chip Cookies”. That week, Bon Appetit was the favorite, although both were well-liked. Working on the spreadsheet was challenging, as neither of us had used it in a while, but we were able to get it to work exactly how we needed for the project. We were a little apprehensive about getting enough people to try the cookies to have an appropriate data set, however, we had many 9th graders eager to try them. We are excited to keep going with our findings, so that way we can soon be done with the baking and begin the coding.
Update on Progress from Weeks 4-6 (include any photos or video if relevant):
The favorite cookies:
Sally’s Baking Addiction New York Times
“The Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies” “Giant Crinkled Chocolate Chip Cookie”
Taste: 8.68 Taste: 8.91
Texture: 8.54 Texture: 8.25
Reflection:
Through these past weeks, we’ve baked more cookies and analyzed the ratings of each recipe. We started off by baking the New York Times recipe and Nestle recipe, which you can find on the back of a Nestle chocolate chip packet. We had each of our classmates rate them from 1-10 in the categories: taste and texture. The New York Times cookie was easily a favorite and well-liked amongst our peers. The Nestle one didn’t do so well, many people found it pretty typical for a chocolate chip cookie. We found that the New York Times cookie was the most advanced which explains the great feedback. In the second week, we baked Sally’s Baking Addiction – “The Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies”, and the “LEVAIN BAKERY CHOCOLATE CHIP CRUSH COOKIES.” The Sally recipe was a big hit which was surprising seeing as the recipe was fairly simple. The Levain style cookies didn’t do as well, they were very thick and didn’t cook correctly. After baking each of our 6 recipes and having our classmates rate them in taste and texture we put the data in our spreadsheet. We found the average taste and texture for each cookie and found that NYT got: taste- 8.68 and texture- 8.54; and Sally’s got taste- 8.91 and texture- 8.25. Because the scores were so close we decided we would make the final call, choosing the New York Times recipe as the best one! In the coming weeks, we are planning on learning HTML and making our website.
Update on Progress from Weeks 7-9 (include any photos or video if relevant):
Reflection:
In these weeks we’ve created a website for our recipe of choice. In weeks 4-6, we chose the New York Times “Giant Crinkled Chocolate Chip Cookies” as our favorite recipe out of the 6 we tried. Learning how to code in HTML was difficult but the W3School guided us in creating the website. We started off by choosing the title and added the code for the ingredients and instructions for the recipe. This was the foundation of our website; later we had to add the design. The hardest part was figuring out the code for the fonts, colors, and placement of our webpage. It took a lot of collaboration and work, but ultimately, we figured each step out. We both have learned a great deal of HTML and are very proud of the final web design. We felt it was difficult to code the website in just 2 weeks, so next time, we would make sure to spread out the work so we could leave more time for coding. As people, we’ve both developed in time management, web design, and coding. We both hope to keep exploring HTML as well as baking as this project has inspired us.
What we learned:
HTML was fairly new to both of us. We had to first learn how to use it and how it works generally, and then we went deeper into specifics to use for our project. For example, we had to find the right colors, use the right fonts, and insert an image. Each of these elements took research and multiple attempts to get our desired outcome, but we were able to create something we really like.
Final Product (e.g., documents, images, video, audio, poster, display, etc.):
QR code for our final website along with the HTML coding:
* Click “run” once you get to the website
Link to our poster: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18LCijhTgC8Rx2PihvbuNCh_OQKMEViYDY5_YgrGxOAw/edit?usp=sharing
