Help with science homework!

[Pollyputthekettleon71]

DC brought this question home. Is it just us or is it confusing?

If chocolate is heated it melts and becomes a liquid. After cooling again it returns to its solid state. Heating has only changed it temporarily. If the foods listed were heated over a candle which would change temporarily and which would change permanently?

cheese/sugar/bread/spaghetti/butter/potato crisp/peanut/chocolate/banana/lard/biscuit/rice

Is it a question of foods changing back to their solid state or whether heat irreversibly changes food; in this case by burning as spaghetti is not usually heated over a candle but in water.

It seems an odd list tbh

Seems fairly straight forward. The chic was an example. The spaghetti would be permanent.

Thanks...that's what we thought. :)

Choc!!

Is he Y2?
I do agree that all of the items held over a candle flame will burn, which is an irreversible change.

spaghetti permanent cos it would burn I presume?

y6 SAT revision.
We had cheese has permanent change but apparently it's a temporary change.

Whatever you decide, give a reason.
So, cheese will melt, when it cools it becomes a solid, but cooking is a chemical change and it is no longer the same as raw cheese.
Spaghetti you can dry out and recook, same with rice.

@FallenCaryatid
That makes sense but it's just a table to sort the foods into.
We're probably over thinking it.

I'm a secondary science teacher, not primary. I assume it's about change of state (melting and freezing) vs chemical reaction (burning). Cheese melts and then freezes again. Of course it burns too. But it would melt first!

spaghetti over a candle would surely just burn....permanent change

Surely they would all burn over a candle flame

Well yes. But some would melt first.

but they will burn before they have chance to return to their original state

Its not a very good question. Some of those things melt and resolidify but there is some sort of permanent change to the morphology even if there's not a chemical change. Actually, I think there is a chemical change to the cheese, I reckon the protein denatures to some extent so it goes strandy

Oh I hate this rubbish.

Why don't they leave science to secondary school rather than this nonsense where you basicly have to learn the right answers?

Yes they want which will melt and set and which ones burn. Reversible and irreversible changes.

But the correct answer for the SAT is clearly wrong and confusing because every child knows melted cheese tastes different! Cooled butter and chocolate don't.

DD1 and I did endless science papers and we never failed to and up in heaps of frustrated giggles at the absurd ambiguities in them.

I have a postgraduate science degree, I have sat a vast number of science papers. The SATs are by far the worst!

It's a rubbish question. I bet they all get level 5s...

we did write 'this is piece of homework is nonsensical so we didn't finish it' on the sheet but that wasn't the right answer either!! I am a primary teacher too!! :)

Well, that was pretty rude actually. I'm not sure I'd want my children party to that kind of comment about their teacher. I've dealt with a fair amount of iffy science over the years, but I' ve dealt with it by making sure my DC know what they are doing.

Has the teacher created the sheet or is it a photocopied sheet from a published resource?

Why?

because it's such a strange question

There are some very poor resources out there...

However, if you use them, you need to vet them first!

it doesn't appear that this one has been vetted ...

Photocopied sheet.
Child doesn't know what we wrote on it but does know we didn't finish it as it was confusing.