IGCSE BIOLOGY RESEARCH

WRITING
by Stephanie Brenda Devin Ardhan Nikita Monica
INTRODUCTION
Bricks plays very important role in the field of civil engineering construction and are
used as an alternative of stones in construction purpose. In the history of professional
construction practices, brick is one of the oldest of all building materials. It is also
arguably the most durable, since there are brick walls, foundations, pillars, and road
surfaces constructed thousands of years ago that are still intact. Today, bricks are most
often used for wall construction, especially as an ornamental outer wall surface. Here
some main uses of construction brick are given below.

Construction of walls of any size Making Khoa (Broken bricks of

Construction of floors required size) to use as an
Construction of arches and aggregate in concrete
cornices Manufacture of surki (powdered
Construction of brick retaining bricks) to be used in lime plaster
wall and lime concrete
In Indonesia clay bricks are baked traditionally by stacking them high,
interlaid with coal, woods, etc and fired. This process is done for around
two-three days depending on the condition of the bricks. For this
experiment, we have decided to test several types of height of bricks to find
out how it affects the strength and harness of a brick, mainly burnt clay
bricks.

We visited a local brick making independent company, whom have 3

years of experience in the brick making industry by using the traditional
method of making bricks to help us start our research.
THE EFFECT OF THE DISTANCE OF THE BRICK FROM
THE FIRE/HEAT SOURCE DURING THE BAKING
PROCESS TO ITS STRENGTH
OBJECTIVE

To investigate whether the distance of the brick

from the fire during the baking process would
affect the strength of the brick
HYPOTHESIS
The brick closer in distance to the
fire/heat source in the
baking/burning process is the
stronger brick.

IV : Height of the brick from the

DV : Strength of the brick
fire/heat source

MATERIAL USED
Measuring Tape
Brick
BAKING PROCEDURE
1. Take the clay from the land to the
brick making machine and then dry
it for days.
2. Take the dried brick (with
wheelbarrow) and bring it to
build the furnace
3. Before building the furnace, 4. Build the furnace until like this:
we’ve to build the wall first

5. Burn the fire wood

6. DAY 1:

7. DAY 2: The brick is already done, but we’ve to

wait the brick isn’t hot again until tomorrow
8. Day 3: the brick is already to
take
DROP TEST PROCEDURE
Each brick is dropped from a height of 1.5 meters to the
ground made of concrete.

We observe the condition of the bricks after

being dropped.
OBSERVATIONS
 NOTE

Height: Trials:
A1: 84 cm - T1
A2: 64 cm -T2
A3: 46 cm -T3
A4: 28 cm -T4
A1.T1 A1.T2 A1.T3
A1.T4
A2.T1 A2.T2 A2.T3
A2.T4
A3.T1 A3.T2 A3.T3
A3.T4
A4.T1 A4.T2 A4.T3
A4.T4
Range Criteria

0-25% = The brick is slightly damaged, chipped at the corners, the initial
shape of the brick can still be seen

25-50% = The brick splits into 2 parts, there is very little bits and fragments

50-75% = The brick is split into 2 parts, cracked at the edges, many bits of
pieces and fragments can be seen

75-100% = The brick is deformed, brick is split into more than 2 parts, many
bits of pieces and fragments big and small, initial shape of brick can't be seen
 # of Trials A1 A2 A3 A4

T1 50-75% 0-25% 25-50% 0-25%

T2 50-75% 0-25% 25-50% 25-50%

T3 0-25% 0-25% 25-50% 25-50%

T4 25-50% 25-50% 0-25% 0-25%

*note: A: layer T: row

CONCLUSION
According to our range criteria from our drop
test experiment, Brick A4 (of height 28 cm from
the fire/source of heat) is the most suitable brick
for everyday use because in all 4 trials, we
observed that damages after the drop test
mostly ranges from 0 – 25%. This supports our
hypothesis that “the brick closer in distance to
the fire/heat source in the baking/burning
process is the stronger brick.”
THE EFFECT OF THE DISTANCE OF THE BRICK FROM
THE FIRE DURING THE BAKING PROCESS TO ITS
HARDNESS
OBJECTIVE

To investigate whether the distance of the brick

from the fire during the baking process would
affect the rate of absorbtion of the brick to test
the hardness
 HYPOTHESIS Our hypothesis is that the closer in
distance (height) of a brick from a
source of heat/fire in baking process,
the more water is “displaced”.

IV : The distance (height) of the

DV : Volume of water observed
bricks from the fire/heat source

MATERIAL USED
48 Transparant
16 Brick Plastic Bag
Kitchen Scale
Measuring
Measuring Tape Cylinder (250 &
1000 ml) Tap Water
 PROCEDURE
1. We measured the mass of each brick with a kitchen scale

Initial Mass Of Brick (kg)

No. of Trials X Y Z C

1 1,565 1,430 1,495 1,590

2 1,545 1,410 1,410 1,635

3 1,560 1,530 1,470 1,570

2. We filled 1,5 litters (L) of tap water inside 12 transparant plastic bags with the help
of the apparatus such as measuring cylinders (to measure 1,5 L of water )
3. We placed one brick in each of the 12 plastic bags
4. The bricks were them left overnight to soak in the plastic bags filled with water for
at least 24 hours.
 5. The following day, we transferred the water into measuring cyilinder to measure
the remaining water left after the brick have absorbed the water
RESULT :

Water Remaining (mL)

No. of Trials X Y Z C

1 651 1,089 1,076 645

2 640 1,120 1,112 615

3 821 1,328 1,113 630

By measuring the remaining water left in the plastic bag, we could then calculate how much water have
been absorbed by the brick, in the words the water displaced using the formula :
Water Absorbed = 1,500 mL - water remaining
BEFORE
AFTER

X2

X1 X3
Y2 Y3 Y3
Z1
Z2 Z3
C1 C2 C3
 Water remaining (mL)
No. of Trials X Y Z C

1 651 1,089 1,076 645

2 640 1,120 1,112 615

3 821 1,328 1,113 630

By measuring the remaining water left in the plastic bags, we could then calculate how
much water have been absorbed by the bricks, in other words the water displaced
using the formula:
Water absorbed = 1,500 mL – Water remaining
 Absorption of Water (mL)
No. of
X Y Z C
Trials

1 849 411 424 855

2 860 380 388 885

3 679 172 387 870

By calculating how much water have been absorbed by each brick, we could then calculate the mass of
the bricks after going through the absorption test by converting milli-litres (mL) of water into grams (gr)
and add the calculated grams of water to the initial mass of each brick.
So, Mass of brick (after) = Initial mass of brick(gr) + Water absorbed (mL converted to gr) with note that
1 mL = 1 gr.
 IN THEORY:
MASS OF BRICKS (AFTER) (kg)
No. of
X Y Z C
Trials

1 2,414 1,841 1,919 2,445

2 2,405 1,790 1,798 2,520

3 2,239 1,702 1,857 2,440

For a good quality brick, the amount of absorption shouldn’t exceed 20% of weight of the dry brick
(initial mass of bricks)
With the formula :
(Water absorbed / initial mass of bricks) x 100%
We can find whether between bricks X, Y, Z and C, which brick is most suitable to be used according to
amount of water absorption.
 PERECENTAGE OF AMOUNT OF WATER ABSORPTION

No. of Trials X Y Z C

1 54,25% 28,74% 28,36% 53,77%

2 55,66% 26,95% 27,52% 54,13%

3 43,53% 11.24% 26,33% 55,41%

AVERAGE 51,15% 22,31% 27,40% 54,44%

WHEN CALCULATED WITH A KITCHEN SCALE:

MASS OF BRICKS (AFTER) (kg)

No. of Trials X Y Z C

1 2,215 1,760 1,745 2,210

2 2,135 1,740 1,860 2,245

3 2,200 1,750 1,820 2,210

CONCLUSION
Overall, according to the absorption test that we conducted, although all
4 types of bricks X, Y, Z, and C exceeded the ideal 20% of amount of
absorption of water, Brick Y is the most suitable brick to be used in
everyday life. According to our hypothesis which encourages the closest
brick from the fire/heat source – which is Brick C – the result that we
found contradicts our hypothesis. Why this is so we conclude to be 2
reasons.
1) Convection current of the heat waves from the fire/source
of heat travels up the furnace and mostly hits the middle of
the furnace. Brick Y is at height of 64 cm and positioned
right at the middle of the upper furnace.
2) We did not consider to measure the width of the furnace.
If convection current only hits the upper middle of the
furnace, this means that it did not thoroughly travel the
depths of the furnace which is farther from the fire/source of
heat.
FURTHER IMPROVEMENT
Since in this research we decided to use the ‘height’ of the bricks as the
benchmark of “distance of bricks from the fire/heat source”, the experiment
could be conducted in the same way but with ‘width’ of the furnace as a different
benchmark for a more varied result or both ‘height’ and ‘width’ could be
considered.
To test the strength and hardness of the bricks, we could also use other different
types of methods instead of using the drop test and the water absorption test to
further diversify our results in order to find bricks of a finer quality. Instead of
using clay as the main material of our bricks, we could also use other different
types of materials such as Fly ash, concrete, sand lime or calcium silicate bricks,
etc.
THANK YOU