Recognize that adding heat to or removing heat from a system may result in a temperature change and possibly a change of state.
| Name |
Description |
| Just Right Goldilocks’ Café: Temperature & Turbidity | 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. |
| Just Right Goldilocks’ Café: Turbidity | 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. |
| Just Right Goldilocks’ Café: Temperature | 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.
|
| It's Just a Phase You are Going Through | 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. |
| States of Matter | 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. |
| Who will have the hottest lunch? | 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. |
| How is Energy Transferred? | 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. |
| Let's Heat it Up! | 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. |
| Heat Almighty! | 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. |
| Solar Oven Bakery | 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. |
| The D'Fence Project | 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. |
| Frozen Treats Storage Dilemma | 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. |
| Thermal Energy Flow | 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. |
| Saving the Veggies! | 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. |
| Let's Heat Things Up! | 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. |
| Kickin' It Solar Style | This investigation explores the effect of distance and albedo on energy absorption. |
| Name |
Description |
| Melt Away - Exploring the Heat of Fusion of Water | 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. |
| Degrees of Separation | In this collaborative activity students discover a quantitative model for measuring thermal energy. |
| Sun and Temperatures | Students consider the relationship of temperature to environmental conditions and then apply their understanding to a practical event. |
| Design Squad - Feel the Heat | A project challenge that uses an engineering approach to build a solar water heater out of common materials. |
| Absolute Zero | 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. |
