SUPER IMPROVED METHOD

Equipment

·        1x spoon

·        1x large strip of cloth

·        1x saucepan

·        1x thermometer

·        1x measuring cup

·        1x ceramic bowl

·        350mL of vinegar

·        190mL of full cream milk

Procedure

·        Place the strip of cloth over the sink and the ceramic bowl on the bench.

·        Pour 20mL of vinegar into the measuring cup.

·        Heat the 200mL of milk in the saucepan to a temperature of 50°C.

·        Pour the heated milk into the ceramic bowl.

·        Add the vinegar to the milk in the bowl.

·        Stir the mixture with a spoon for one minute.

·        Pour the contents of the bowl carefully onto the cloth.
-Grab the corners of the cloth and tie the cloth around the tap so that the liquid is able to drain at the bottom.
-Wait for 5 minutes for the liquid to drain.

·        Remove the cloth from the tap.
-Gather the solids in the cloth and mould into a relatively round ball.

·        Place in the sun to dry for one day.

·        Tabulate information on the resultant substance including: weight, hardness, colour, flexibility and smell.

·        Repeat experiment replacing 20mL of vinegar with 0mL, 50mL and 100mL of vinegar.

New method

Equipment

·        1x spoon

·        1x strainer

·        1x saucepan

·        1x thermometer

·        1x measuring cup

·        1x ceramic bowl

·        500mL of vinegar

·        1L of full cream milk

Procedure

·        Place the strainer over the sink and the ceramic bowl on the bench.

·        Pour 100mL of vinegar into the measuring cup.

·        Heat the 200mL of milk in the saucepan to a temperature of 50°C.

·        Pour the heated milk into the ceramic bowl.

·        Add the vinegar to the milk in the bowl.

·        Stir the mixture with a spoon for one minute.

·        Pour the contents of the bowl carefully into the strainer.

·        Gather the solids in the strainer and mould into a round ball.

·        Place in the sun to dry for one day.

·        Tabulate information on the resultant substance including: weight, hardness, colour, flexibility and smell.

·        Repeat experiment replacing 100mL of vinegar with 0mL, 50mL, 100mL and 200mL of vinegar.

Aim, Hypothesis and Referencing?

Aim: To investigate the effects on milk when vinegar is added to it (this probably isn't going to be my real one but I should make up one now for this blog's sake)
Hypothesis: When more vinegar is added to milk, it produces greater quantities of casein.

I used these websites to create my own method of making casein:
http://www.sciencebob.com/experiments/plasticmilk.php
http://www.csiro.au/resources/plastic-milk-activity.html

Explaining the Method

Well this post is solely dedicated to explaining my experiment a.k.a dumbing it down. So it's just a way of me reminding myself why I did certain things and identifying controlled variables and stuff for my report. 

First I set up my equipment, so that the milk doesn't lose its heat while I prepare my other equipment, like measuring my vinegar. After the milk reaches approximately 50 degrees celcius (the temp. of the milk is an unavoidable error/inaccuracy which I have to write in my report) I pour the milk into the ceramic bowl and quickly add the vinegar to the bowl of milk. Again, I have to do it quickly so that the milk doesn't cool down, although if I do it too fast I might spill some or burn myself. Should that be in the risk assessment? Oh dear, I totally forgot we had to do one. Or do we? O-O
Anyway, then I use a spoon (do I have to say if its metal or wooden and if it effected the experiment or not? kill me.) to stir the milk and vinegar so that they'll mix and form the casein. I have to do it for one minute for every experiment because it's a controlled variable as stirring it more might effect the end result.
Then whatever is in the bowl should be put in the strainer over the sink, so that I can get the casein. I'll take the solids (I wonder if it'll be hot or not?) and try to mould it into a thin rectangular shape so that it dries faster in the sun.
Then I think I need to record what the time is, and I probably should have said that in my method, but write it down somewhere so that I know when I should take it out of the sun. I think another unavoidable error might be how much sun each of the plastics get because I can't watch over it 24/7.
Then I'd take the casein away and tabulate the information with what I think might be the dependent variables. I'm keeping my options open at the moment.
Finally I repeat the experiment with different amounts of vinegar, to see how the dependent variables change. Did I need a hypothesis and aim as well? I'll write that in my next post. 
I said that I had to repeat the experiment with no vinegar because it should be my control group one. I don't think that's the right term, but I learnt that you should do something like that just in case it does it my itself... pardon me if I don't make sense. And Ms Zhang I feel sorry for you for having to read all of this. ^^

Method

Okay, so I found out in class that we had to make a suitable method for our experiment and do it in dot points and in present or future tense. I choose present because that's what we usually do. ^^;;

Equipment

·        1x spoon

·        1x strainer

·        1x saucepan

·        1x thermometer

·        1x measuring cup

·        1x ceramic bowls

·        250mL of vinegar

·        500mL of full cream milk

Procedure

·        Place the strainer over the sink and the ceramic bowl on the bench.

·        Pour 25mL of vinegar into the measuring cup.

·        Heat the 100mL of milk in the saucepan to a temperature of 50°C.

·        Pour the heated milk into the ceramic bowl.

·        Add the vinegar to the milk in the bowl.

·        Stir the mixture with a spoon for one minute.

·        Pour the contents of the bowl into the strainer.

·        Gather the solids in the strainer and mould into thin rectangular shapes.

·        Place in the sun to dry for one day.

·        Tabulate information on the resultant substance including: weight, hardness, colour, flexibility and smell.

·        Repeat experiment replacing 25mL of vinegar with 0mL, 50mL, 75mL and 100mL of vinegar.