thermometer getting warmer and getting colder
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Teacher Guide

Getting Warmer/Getting Colder

Experimenting the effects of heat.

Do you trust your sense of touch? Do different objects have different thermal insulating properties?

This resource was originally published in PhysicsQuest 2019: Heat.

This is the teacher guide for this lesson. A student-focused guide to assist learners as they perform the activity is available.

View the student guide: Getting Warmer/Getting Colder

Do you trust your sense of touch? Do different objects have different thermal insulating properties?

  • Liquid crystal thermometer (10°C to 32°C/50°F to 90°F)
  • Thermal paper
  • Silver insulation bubble material
  • Aluminum
  • Felt
  • Cardboard
  • Small ice cubes, similar in size (4)
  • Warm water (6 fl oz. per cup, 24 fl oz. total)
  • Cups for water (4)
  • Paper towels
  • Timer
  • Scissors

This activity is split into two different experiments that you can run on two different days. The first day, students will predict how well materials conduct heat and then experiment to collect data on their predictions. The second day, they will use water to observe which materials insulate heat better. At the end of each day, they get a chance to discuss their conclusions.

  • Total time
    45 - 60 Minutes
  • Education level
    Grades 5 - 9
  • Content Area
    Heat
  • Educational topic
    Thermodynamics

The five human senses—sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing—tell people a lot about their world, but sometimes tools (such as x-rays, microscopes, and thermometers) can provide much more accurate information. Human senses are limited in scope and sensitivity and many times aren’t as objective as they initially seem.

Use your hand to touch a piece of metal and a piece of wood. Which one feels warmer? Assuming that you are not near a direct heat source, all of the objects around you should be at thermal equilibrium, including the metal and the wood. If you measure the temperature of the metal and wood with a thermometer, you’ll find that both read about 24°C (about 75°F), which is room temperature.

So why does the metal feel colder? When two objects are in thermal contact—meaning they can exchange heat energy—heat energy will always flow from the warmer object to the cooler object until the two reach thermal equilibrium. Skin temperature is roughly 34°C (about 93°F), almost 20 degrees Fahrenheit higher than room temperature.

When you touch something at room temperature, heat energy flows from your fingers into the object. The rate at which the heat energy travels from your hand through a material depends on the material’s thermal conductivity.

Metals have higher thermal conductivities than wood, so heat energy flows more quickly through metals than wood. The metal feels colder because heat energy leaves your fingers faster. An object with high thermal conductivity will heat up and cool off more quickly than an object with low thermal conductivity. Imagine putting a metal spoon and a plastic spoon into a cup of hot coffee. The metal spoon will get hot much faster than the plastic spoon, since metal has higher thermal conductivity than plastic. Both will eventually come to equilibrium with the temperature of the coffee and each other.

Thermal insulation is the process where the heat energy is slowed or blocked from moving from one place or object to another place or object. The heat energy can be reflected, absorbed, or slowed based on the materials involved. Materials with high thermal conductivity will generally make poor insulators since heat flows through them quickly. A good insulator will have low thermal conductivity, making heat energy flow through them more slowly. A block of ice will melt more quickly when sitting on a material with high thermal conductivity, like metal, than when sitting on a material with low thermal conductivity, like wood. Metal is a poor insulator and it allows heat to reach the block of ice faster than the wood, which is a good insulator, does.

Key terms

These are the key terms that students should know by the END of the two lessons. They do not need to be front loaded. In fact, studies show that presenting key terms to students before the lesson may not be as effective as having students observe and witness the phenomenon the key terms illustrate beforehand and learn the formalized words afterwards. For this reason, we recommend allowing students to grapple with the experiments without knowing these words and then exposing them to the formalized definitions afterwards in the context of what they learned.

However, if these words are helpful for students on an IEP, ELL students, or anyone else that may need more support, please use at your discretion.

  • Conduction: Transfer of heat energy through contact.
  • Convection: Transfer of heat energy through currents
  • Density: The mass of a substance per unit volume.
  • Molecules: The smallest particle of a substance that retains all the properties of the substance and is composed of one or more atoms.
  • Thermal Energy: Energy in the for of heat
  • Thermal Equilibrium: A state of a system in which all parts are at the same temperature
Experiment 1
Objective

Students will experiment with heat to melt ice cubes.

Before the experiment
  • Ask & Discuss protocol

    Ask & Discuss: Considering the materials you will use in this activity (silver insulation bubble material, aluminum, felt, and cardboard), which do you think will be the best and worst at transferring heat energy? Rank the materials in order of best to worst thermal conductors.

    1. ____________________ (best)
    2. ____________________
    3. ____________________
    4. ____________________ (worst)
  • Turn & talk protocol

    Use the turn & talk protocol

    1. Pair students up
    2. Give them a minute to think quietly
    3. Give students 2 minutes to discuss their thinking
    4. Have students record their answers or share out to the whole group
Setting up

  • Put a layer of paper towels on top of the table.

  • Cut out a 3x3” square of cardboard.

  • Lay the cardboard on top of the paper towels. Then lay the silver insulation bubble material, felt, and aluminum on the paper towels, each an inch or two apart.

During the experiment
Collecting data

  • Make sure students are put into intentional groups. See above.

  • Students will complete the experiment using the Student Guide where we have outlined the experiment for students and along the way, they record results and answer questions.

Analyzing data

  • In the student guide, they will answer questions that help them understand what heat does to objects.

  • Continue to listen in on each group’s discussion, answer as few questions as possible. Even if a group is off a little, they will have a chance to work out these stuck points later.

Teacher tip

Suggested STEP UP Everyday Actions to incorporate into activity:

  • When pairing students, try to have male/female partners and invite female students to share their ideas first
  • As you put students into groups, consider having female or minority students take the leadership role.
  • Take note of female participation. If they seem to be taking direction and following along, elevate their voice by asking them a question about their experiment.
  • Consider using white boards so students have time to work through their ideas and brainstorms before saying them out loud.
  • As students experiment, roam around the room to listen in on discussion and notice experiment techniques. If needed, stop the class and call over to a certain group that has hit on an important concept.

Consider using the RIP protocol (Research, Instruct, Plan) for lab group visits and conferring.

Consider culturally responsive tools and strategies and/or open ended reflection questions to help push student thinking, evidence tracking, and connections to their lives. Look for *** below to find suggested places to add.

Conclusion

  • Post the conclusion question

    • What claim can you make in regards to the density of hot and cold water?

  • Use the 4 quadrants protocol to have students share and refine their thinking.

    1. Have a student from each small group or table make a claim and read the four statements aloud and place the paper with the statements on it in the middle of the table.
    2. Going in turn, have each student state which of the four statements they most agree with and why.
    3. No one may interrupt whichever student is speaking.
    4. When the speaker is finished, he or she places a BINGO chip on the statement they most agree with.
    5. Going in turn, each of the other three team members states their beliefs and places a BINGO chip.
    6. As a whole room, tally how many chips there are for each statement and ask students to clarify their thinking to each other. Use talk moves from Michaels and O’Connor’s Talk Science Primer to ask students to elaborate and clarify their thinking. If needed, each student can write his or her ideas at the end of class in their science journal.

  • After students have had a chance to discuss key ideas from the lesson and complete their student guides, you can now clarify and give concise definitions to the forces they experimented with.

Experiment 2
Objective

Students will use water to experiment with different materials and heat.

Before the experiment

  • Ask & Discuss: Imagine a time it was cold outside. What helped keep you warm?

  • Use the turn & talk protocol

    1. Pair students up
    2. Give them a minute to think quietly
    3. Give students 2 minutes to discuss their thinking
    4. Have students record their answers or share out to the whole group
Setting up

  • Cut the thermal paper to the same size as all of the four materials combined (silver insulation bubble material, aluminum, felt, and cardboard).

  • Fill each of the containers with 6 fl oz. of hot water.

  • Put the four containers of hot water close together.

  • Place each of the four materials over a different container.

  • Place the thermal paper on top of the four materials.

During the experiment
Collecting data

  • Make sure students are put into intentional groups. See above.

  • Students will complete the experiment using the Student Guide where we have outlined the experiment for students and along the way, they record results and answer questions.

Analyzing data

  • In the student guide, they will answer questions that help them understand what heat does to objects.

  • Continue to listen in on each group’s discussion, answer as few questions as possible. Even if a group is off a little, they will have a chance to work out these stuck points later.

Conclusion
  • Post the conclusion question

    Now that you have completed both parts of the activity, describe the relationship between thermal conduction properties and thermal insulation properties.

  • Use the 4 quadrants

    Use the 4 quadrants protocol to have students share and refine their thinking.

    1. Have a student from each small group or table make a claim and read the four statements aloud and place the paper with the statements on it in the middle of the table.
    2. Going in turn, have each student state which of the four statements they most agree with and why.
    3. No one may interrupt whichever student is speaking.
    4. When the speaker is finished, he or she places a BINGO chip on the statement they most agree with.
    5. Going in turn, each of the other three team members states their beliefs and places a BINGO chip.
    6. As a whole room, tally how many chips there are for each statement and ask students to clarify their thinking to each other. Use talk moves from Michaels and O’Connor’s Talk Science Primer to ask students to elaborate and clarify their thinking. If needed, each student can write his or her ideas at the end of class in their science journal.

  • After students have had a chance to discuss key ideas from the lesson and complete their student guides, you can now clarify and give concise definitions to the forces they experimented with.

Real world connections -

  • Imagine you are going to have a warm cup of hot chocolate. Which cup would you rather pour your drink into? A metal mug, or a plastic thermos? Students can present their choice in the form of a sales pitch to get their product sold (Shark-Tank style)

Suggestions for drawing, illustrating, presenting content in creative ways

Engineering and design challenges connected to the content

Put students in groups and have them complete this Cooler Design Activity

Credits

Coordination, Research, Text, and Editorial Review Jon Anderson, Isabel Bishop, Randie Hovatter, Jamie Liu, Leah Poffenberger, James Roche, Natalie Ruiz, Laurie Tangren, Rose Villatoro, David Voss

Graphic Design and Production Meghan White

Illustration of Experiment Guides Isabel Bishop

Illustration of Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu Annamaria Ward

Updated in 2023 by Sierra Crandell, M.Ed. partially funded by Eucalyptus Foundation

Extension by Jenna Tempkin with Society of Physics Students (SPS)

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