- Not yet complete (last updated 21 April 2018)

Here is an explicit list of activities where students engage in solving problems designed to promote deeper understanding of heat.

• Most problems are based on the most common misconceptions that students bring to class.
• Each Stage 1-3 activity is designed for one or two hours duration (depending on student level and weather on the day)
• Duration of Kindy and Year 1 activities depend on discretion of the teacher on the day.
• Each activity can be extended or repeated - both within and across grades/stages.
• The activities can be carried out in any order, depending on capabilities of children.
• A list of example student activities/problems follows…

• SEEING RED
• GREENHOUSE EFFECT
• FEELING COOL
• STAYING COOL
• UP, DOWN & AROUND
• OCEAN CURRENTS

These example activities are designed to take up about 50% of classroom time.

In general, the first session should introduce a misconception which is discussed along with explicit remedial content. This should be followed by a second session comprised of hands-on activity directly related to the misconceptions and concepts discussed in the earlier session.

Studies have shown that challenging misconceptions by experiment and through discussion can quickly enable them to acquire the necessary concepts to equip them to develop their understanding of thermal physics.

• More Brainbox heat lab activities

Some example students activities for K-6 are explained in more detail in their own web pages:

CURRICULUM LINK

• Scientific knowledge about the effects of heating and cooling is used by people in their everyday life, eg the types of clothes worn, the packaging and preparation of food and everyday devices, eg freezers, irons or cook-tops, and even for night-time security.

PROBLEM

• Can the heat properties of materials be measured by non-contact interaction?
• Can the heat properties of materials be affected by non-contact interaction?

CURRICULUM LINK

• Everyday interactions between objects that result from contact and non-contact forces

Create a simple survey to introduce the concept of Infra-red (IR), and familiarise students with and IR thermometer.

If you will be using an Infra-red (IR) thermometer this is a good activity to familiarise students with some of the underlying science.

This will be an extremely useful tool to use for almost every heat experiment described below.

Watch the videos and select at least one practical experiment to perform, then discuss (some example activities/ideas can be found here.

1. Infrared Thermometer Manual Page 1
2. Infrared Thermometer Manual Page 2

Investigating heat using Infra-red (IR) technology (Read more)

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METHOD

• Use an infra-red light source to heat up an object
• Use a mobile phone or infra-red camera to view a TVV remote control unit when pressing buttons

QUESTION

1. Is infra-red heat?
2. Why can we feel but not see infra-red?
3. How can we measure temperature using infra-red?
4. What are some of the things that we use every day that also use infra-red - and how do they work?

DISCUSSION

• Share and compare the results of your investigations/experiments and convince others that your explanation is correct.

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An infra-red (IR) thermometer can be used to make some experiments more concrete.

Better still Concord uses affordable IR cameras to visualize invisible energy flows and transformations in easy-to-do science experiments. Using this “desktop remote sensing” approach, thermal energy can be readily “seen.”

Other types of energy that convert into thermal energy can be inferred from thermal signals. Hence, many invisible physical, chemical, and biological processes that absorb or release heat can be visualized, discovered, and investigated. The following experiment can be successfully performed using a simple IR thermometer only.

Shine a desk lamp (or invisible IR light source) through an inverted plastic take-away or similar container.

The light will be absorbed by the black paper inside.

The paper will radiate IR light, but the IR radiation emitted from the paper cannot penetrate through the transparent container.

As a result, heat is trapped inside the cup.

The above can be measured using an IR thermometer.

QUESTION

• What happens to the temperature inside the container - and why?
• How could this experiment be extended/adapted to show a range of other heat-related effects?

PROBLEM Do Different Colours Absorb More/Less Sunlight/Heat?

1. Use a graphics or word processor application to create and print a page with different colour bars
   1. include a black and a white bar/area
   2. make the bars as large as possible to fill the page
   3. make each of the bars the same size
2. Create a simple table to record the temperature for white, black and each of the other printed colours:
3. Place the printed sheet in the clear sunlight for a few miutes.
4. Use an IR thermometer to measure he temperature difference between different colours and enter the results into your table

QUESTION

• If the temperatures vary for different colours, what does this tell you?
• How accurate would the results be, and why?
• Would these results make a difference to colours you would choose for things you use outside?

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PROBLEM

• Students investigate properties of materials and use their understanding of temperature to explain why different materials feel warmer or cooler than each-other.

CURRICULUM LINK

• Students observe the effects of heat moving from one object to another, eg the feeling when hands are placed on warm or cold materials
• Describes everyday interactions between objects that result from contact and non-contact forces

METHOD

1. Students create two very simple two-row tables, such as the following;

Enter your name and then, in the top row, tick the box of the item you think will be WARMEST:

Enter your name and then, in the top row, tick the box of the item you think will be COOLEST:

Ask students to write down what materials they think will feel coldest and which feel warmest.

Discuss the results that you wrote into your table.

Using a thermometer, measure the temperature of each item and enter that temperature into the second row for each of your tables

Using results that you wrote down, discuss what you observed and what that might show about heat and different materials.

Discuss the results of your Heat Prediction Survey results (see example table above).

QUESTIONS

1. Does a metal ruler feel colder or warmer than a wooden ruler?
2. What materials do most people think feels warmer or cooler?
3. Can we trust that the way things feel to us will be the same to someone else?
4. How can we find a way to agree about the temperature of different materials?
5. What does 'thermal equilibrium' mean
6. How can you check that the concept of 'thermal equilibrium' is correct?
7. Can you convince others that you are correct?

Some example answers:

• My results for Table 1 (above) show that most adults and students (66%) think that metal is colder than wood.
• When measured with a thermometer the temperature of metal and wood were … …
• This confirms the misconceptions that most people may have (as described in Video 1. above). Most people think….
• I think the reason that the metal and wood are the same temperature is because…

QUESTIONS

• What is 'radiation'
• What kid of stuff gets 'radiated'
• What things would you say 'radiate' stuff
• What is 'infra-red' and how can we use it to measure temperature?

DISCUSSION

• Share and compare you solution and convince others that your explanation is correct.

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The purpose of this simple experiment is for students to investigate the properties of materials:

Lots of materials can be used to help insulate (slow/stop melting) ice. Some materials work better than others at slowing down the speed that ice melts.

CURRICULUM LINK

• Observe the effects of heat moving from one object to another,
• Describe how people use scientific knowledge in their work and everyday life to control the movement of heat from one object to another

PROBLEM

• Determine the relationship between how cold/warm different materials feel and how these properties might affect a melting ice block. What material would you choose to place an ice-block on to make sure it melts most slowly?

QUESTION

• How could we design an experiment to find an answer to this 'melting ice block' problem?

EXPERIMENT

• If nobody can come up with a better solution, here is one experiment to try…

METHOD

1. Choose some materials (see example) and place the materials close together on a desktop.
2. Allow long enough for the temperature of each item to stabilise before starting. While waiting:
   1. Ask students to write down what materials they think feel coldest and which feel warmest.
   2. Ask students to write down what materials they think will make an ice-block melt quickest.
3. After the temperature of each item has had time to stabilise, perform your experiment, writing down your results in table(s) similar to this:

Measure the following temperatures first (without ice)

MEASUREMENT

1. Set up a video camera or time-lapse camera system (time must be recorded on video and/or each time-lapse camera photo - you may need to include a clock on-screen)
   1. Make sure all items that you will test are clearly visible in video/camera frame
   2. Start your time-lapse camera recording
2. Quickly place a similar sized block of ice on top of each item
   1. Review your video recording

Nothing works for an extended period of time, so you should move quickly!

Discuss the results for the materials that you tested and data you entered into your table(s).

Using your results, discuss the result that you observed and what they might show about heat.

Can you use your own/other evidence to help convince the class about why materials feel warmer/cooler and make ice-blocks melt slower/faster

How could this experiment be improved if someone wanted to run a similar test?

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Vibrating (jiggling) molecules can move up, down and around

The purpose of this simple experiment is for students to determine the relationship between temperature and speed of molecules in a liquid.

QUESTION

• How could we design an experiment to find an answer to the above problem?

EXPERIMENT

• If nobody can come up with a better solution, here is one experiment to try…

PROBLEM QUESTIONS:

1. what is a molecule?
2. how do molecules move?
3. does heat affect the way molecules move?
4. how could we find out if heat affects the way things move?
5. do you think that heat changes the temperature of the molecules themselves?

Students will use water & food dye to discover more about 'jiggling' and heat: Source

Think about what you are going to do, then write down a prediction about how you think the temperature of water might make a difference when food dye is dropped into the water

Materials you’ll need:

• 3 clear jars
• water: cold, room-temperature, hot water - 1 jar full of each
• concentrated food colouring
• masking tape
• markers
• thermometer (digital thermometer is best, but even no thermometer is OK)

Method to conduct the experiment:

• Label the outside of each jar with the water temperatures you are going to use.
• Fill three bottles. One bottle for room temperature water (about 25C), one with hot water (about 60C), and one with cold water with ice cubes added (about 10C).
• Add a drop (same amount) of food colouring to each of the jars
• Observe what happens over time and write down your results

Perform your experiment, then write down your results in a table similar to this:

Discuss the results that you wrote into your table.

Using your results, discuss the result that you observed and what they might show about heat.

Can you use your own/other evidence to help convince the class that molecules move slower/same/faster when they are warmer, slower/same/faster when they are colder, or move the same amount when warmer as they do when cooler.

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• How could this experiment be improved if someone wanted to run a similar test?

Check out the link (below) to a video about heat and 'convection currents'.

Watch the video

In your journal, write down the things you think someone would need to do to repeat this experiment if they could not see or hear the video (see extra directions)

At the end write down a short explanation of what you think the video shows.

When you are finished, your teacher will hand your instructions to a team of your classmates who will need to perform the experiment using your instructions. Your teacher will supply the things you need, including safety and management of any hot/iced water.

Discuss what you did with the class and see if you can suggest anything you would change if you were to do this experiment again.

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Why does sound travel further in water than in air (why is sound absorption less in water than in air)?

Imagine that we could take a very fast picture of certain properties of a sound wave during transmission. The pressure varies from a little above atmospheric, to a little below and back again as we progress along the wave. Now the high pressure regions will be a little hotter than the low pressure regions. A small amount of heat will pass from hot to cold by conduction. Although it is only a small mount, this non-adiabatic (non-heat conserving) process is responsible for the loss of energy of sound in a gas.

What happens when we change the frequency? The heat has less distance to travel (shorter half wavelength), but less time to do so (shorter half period). So high frequency sounds lose more energy due to this mechanism than do low. This, incidentally, is one of the reasons why we can tell if a known sound is distant: it has lost more high frequency energy, and this contributes to the 'muffled' sound. Another contributing effect is that the relative phase of different components is changed. Read More...

• Elon Musk - The social consequences of too much heat
• Heat conduction through balloon with flame and water
• Heat conduction using food colouring to represent warming of earth surface resulting in air currents (wind)
• Heat Transfer Interactives: http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/gamesactivities/keepingwarm.html
• Minute physics - heat v temperature: youtube or viewpure
• Sparknotes - Heat v Temperature (and money): Heat, Temperature & Money
• How hot can you get: on youtube or viewpure
• Where is the coldest place in the universe: on youtube or viewpure
• Illusion - how we sense and adapt to heat
• Short link to THIS page
• Old heat quiz link/data 2016-2017