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This is lesson 3 of 3 in the Goldilocks’ Café Just Right unit. This lesson focuses on systematic investigation on getting a cup of coffee to be the “just right” temperature and turbidity level. Students will use both the temperature probe and turbidity sensor and code using ScratchX during their investigation.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is lesson 2 of 3 in the Just Right Goldilocks’ Café unit. This lesson focuses on systematic investigation on getting a cup of coffee to be the “just right” level of turbidity. Students will use turbidity sensors and code using ScratchX during their investigation.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is lesson 1 of 3 in the Just Right Goldilocks’ Café unit. This lesson focuses on systematic investigation on getting a cup of coffee to be the “just right” temperature. Students will use temperature probes and code using ScratchX during their investigation.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is a hands-on activity that assists students in developing a deep understanding of how a substance is affected by the absorbing or release of thermal energy.

Type: Lesson Plan

States of matter seems like a simple concept. Everyone knows that water has a solid phase, which is ice, a liquid phase, which is water, and a gaseous stage, which is water vapor. At this level, students are expected to understand the motion of particles at the molecular level. A thorough understanding of particle motion is necessary in preparation for chemistry in the eight grade standards. This activity is fun at Halloween because families may use dry ice in Halloween displays.

Type: Lesson Plan

The scientific method has not only helped scientists but also helped engineers create a design process to solve problems. Within this lesson students will be introduced to the idea that there is not a single design process that is better or more useful that another. Although the process goes by many names, the essential elements are the same, and using a design process to solve problems helps us achieve an optimal solution. A design process should encourage the students to consider as many of the possible solutions. Students will evaluate design processes and will use them to guide their actions.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson will differentiate the three forms of energy transfer. Students will learn about radiation, convection and conduction. Students will learn about different examples for each type of energy transfer. Students will create a foldable in their process of learning the information. Students will be assessed in small groups.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is intended to teach students to recognize what happens when heat is added or removed from a system. This plan shows how heat flows in predictable ways, and helps students overcome their misconceptions. Teachers will gain insight into their students' understanding, and misunderstanding of heat and temperature.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lab experiment was designed to allow students a visual, hands-on and real life experience with the concept of the effects of heat transfer in a closed system. It will work very well as a unit or lesson introduction but can be used at any point during a unit on heat transfer. Students will be observing the behavior of water molecules as heat is added to a closed system. In addition, students will be predicting and estimating the amount of evaporation that occurs when water is heated in a sealed flask by measuring the amount of condensation that is collected in a second, connected flask.

Type: Lesson Plan

The students will investigate how radiation from the sun allows us to bake cookie dough. The students will also determine if the volume of the box determines the time it will take for the cookie dough to bake. The students will also create a graph of the data collected while the cookie dough is baking in the solar oven.

Type: Lesson Plan

This activity will help students with practicing critical thinking, calculating density, will reinforce Physical Properties of Matter and will lead them to understand the role of heat in the changes of the state of matter.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this MEA, students must work as a team to design a procedure to select the best storage cooler for their frozen treats. The main focus of the MEA is to apply scientific knowledge and describe that heat flows in predictable ways. Students will analyze data in order to arrive at a scientifically sound solution to the problem.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

This MEA provides students with the opportunity to explore the basis of heat transfer. The formative assessment exposes students to a quick heat transfer demonstration. The reading passages and data sets further engage students in real life application of heat transfer and energy efficiency

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students exploring how light travels, how heat moves and how it all affects temperature will find this activity fun and exciting. They will have to determine which type of panel to choose for a fictitious greenhouse - glass or plastic and how much light, heat and moisture is best to let in - determined by whether the material is opaque, translucent or transparent. This is a fun challenge but applicable also to the environmental demands we are currently facing.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

How do things heat up? Help students relate thermal energy to their daily lives. This is a two-day entertaining lesson explaining thermal energy the transfer of energy between the phases of matter. It includes 2 activities for the students along with two-teacher demonstrations. Also included is a power point, and small quiz.

Type: Lesson Plan

This investigation explores the effect of distance and albedo on energy absorption.

Type: Lesson Plan

Learn how to demonstrate that adding heat to a system can result in a change in state in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Ideas about applied physics should flow freely after you learn about heat and bronze casting.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

The heat of fusion of water is the energy required to melt one gram of ice. In this lab, your students will use experimental evidence to approximate the heat of fusion of water. They'll also compare the energy needed to cause a change of state to the energy needed to change temperature with no change of state. This lab can be used at the middle or high school level, depending on your learning objectives and how you introduce and debrief the activity.

Type: Teaching Idea

In this collaborative activity students discover a quantitative model for measuring thermal energy. 

Type: Teaching Idea

Students consider the relationship of temperature to environmental conditions and then apply their understanding to a practical event.

Type: Teaching Idea

A project challenge that uses an engineering approach to build a solar water heater out of common materials.

Type: Teaching Idea

A PBS/NOVA lesson (with optional accompanying video) for which students will build and calibrate a thermometer, demonstrate the concept of temperature, measure temperature, and learn the history of the invention of the thermometer and the idea of absolute zero.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students help design experiments to test whether the temperature of water affects the rate of evaporation and whether the temperature of water vapor affects the rate of condensation. Students look in detail at the water molecule to explain the state changes of water.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

• Learn about the known temperature range from absolute zero to absolute hot
• Learn about processes related to some temperatures
• Explore the coldest and warmest spots observed on Earth

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

This video lesson is part of a two-part series and introduces the concept of temperature. Temperature can be a challenging concept to convey since our perception is tied to words that are relative to our own experience, which varies quite a lot. A short activity to be performed in the classroom shows the need for a temperature scale since qualitative descriptions are not adequate. Temperatures that vary from the hottest to coldest recorded temperatures on earth are shown in advance of introducing the boiling temperatures of a number of cryogenic liquids. Required materials include three medium-sized containers, approximately one liter each, one containing hot water (greater than 50C/120F), one ice water and one with water at an intermediate temperature. If dry ice is available locally, the demos from the video can be repeated in the classroom with the proper cautions. This overall lesson should take 30 to 45 minutes to complete. The final question is how to tell from visual observation alone which cup contains hot water and which contains liquid nitrogen. The second BLOSSOMS video in this two-part series, "How Cold Is Cold: Properties of Materials", picks up at this point. While there are no prerequisites for this lesson, it should be viewed in advance of the second lesson of the series.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation