In this lesson, students will monitor the energy given off by food as it burns.

In this experiment, students will:

• Use a temperature probe to measure temperature changes.
• Monitor the energy given off by food as it burns.
• Determine and compare the energy content of different foods.

The energy content of food can be determined by burning a portion of it and capturing the heat released to a known amount of water. This technique is called calorimetry. The energy content of the food is the amount of heat produced by the combustion of 1 gram of a substance. It is measured in kilojoules per gram (kJ/g).  Students will be using the temperature probe to make this determination.