Lesson 1 - Monday, Feb 19 (All periods)
Focus Question: Why does the temperature of the liquid in some cup systems change more than in others?
What We Did…
B period continued answering the questions found in the Exploring Science 8 textbook on pp. 120-125.
E & G periods were asked to draw a regular and fancy cup on a sheet of A3 paper and begin creating a model of the behaviors of the two cups systems according to the information found in the Exploring Science 8 textbook on pp. 120-125.
What We Figured Out…
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How We Represented It…
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Homework: B period students were asked to work for 20 minutes at home on the their Exploring Science 8 questions.
Lesson 2 - Tues, Feb 20 (B & E) & Wed, Feb 21 (G)
Focus Question: Why does the temperature of the liquid in some cup systems change more than in others?
What We Did…
B period continued answering the questions found in the Exploring Science 8 textbook on pp. 120-125. Dr. M collected students notebooks at the end of the lesson to check the work they’ve completed so far.
E & G periods were asked to record key facts from the Exploring Science 8 textbook (pp. 120-125) that can help us better understand the different components of our regular and fancy cup systems: heat energy, plastic, metal, air (surrounding the cup), air (inside of the walls of the fancy cup), water, and ice cubes. G period students had time at the end of the lesson to begin writing their first draft of an answer to a slightly modified version of our Driving Question: How does a Fancy Cup keep ice water from warming up better than a Regular Cup? In their answer, students were asked to use the following terms in their answer: Regular cup, Fancy cup, water, ice cubes, plastic, heat energy, temperature, moving air, non-moving (still) air, conductor (or conduction), insulator (or insulation), and particles.
What We Figured Out…
About heat energy…
- Heat flows from hotter/warmer objects or substances towards cooler/colder objects or substances.
- The bigger the difference in temperature between two objects or substances, the faster the heat energy flows (is “transferred”).
About plastic cups…
- Plastics are good insulators, which means plastics are good at slowing down (or preventing altogether) heat energy from flowing where it always wants to flow (from warmer to colder).
- Plastic cups are solids.
- Plastics are made of particles which are vibrating, close together, and fixed in place.
About ice cubes…
- Ice cubes are solids.
- Ice cubes are made of particles which are vibrating, close together, and fixed in place.
About drinking water…
- Drinking water is a liquid.
- Drinking water is made of particles which are vibrating, close together, but not fixed in place (they can slip/slide past one another).
About air…
- Air is a gas, but can also be considered a fluid.
- Air is made of particles which are vibrating, spaced farther apart, and in constant motion (not fixed in place).
- Still (non-moving) air is a good heat insulator.
- Moving air is a good heat conductor.
How We Represented It…
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Homework: —
Lesson 3 - Wed, Feb 21 (B) & Thurs, Feb 22 (E & G)
Focus Question: Why does the temperature of the liquid in some cup systems change more than in others?
What We Did…
After completing either their answers to the Exploring Science textbook questions (B period) OR their model drawings of Regular and Fancy cups (E & G period), students were asked to begin thinking about and working on Draft #1 of their final answer to a modified version of our Driving Question: How does a Fancy cup keep ice water from warming up better than a Regular cup?
In their drafts, which can be handwritten or typed, students have been asked to use all of the following terms somewhere in their paragraph-form answer…
Heat energy, temperature, water, ice cubes, plastic, Fancy cup, Regular cup, conductor (or conduction), insulator (or insulation), moving air, non-moving (or still) air, particles
For any students struggling to organize their answer, Dr. M offers you the following outline…
1. We’ve been pursuing a Driving Question about how containers keep their contents from warming up or cooling down…
2. To pursue the Driving Question, we’ve been experimenting with Fancy and Regular cups to see which one keeps ice water colder…
3. We discovered that Fancy cups keep ice water colder for longer than Regular cups…
4. To understand how/why the Fancy cup keeps ice water colder for longer, you need to understand how heat energy flows…
5. We learned about a special ‘rule’ to describe how heat energy typically flows…
6. This is how heat energy flows when a Regular cup is filled with cold water (8-10 deg C) and ice cubes (0 deg C) and surrounded by a normal room temperature (20-23 deg C)…
7. This is how heat energy flows when a Fancy cup is filled with cold water (8-10 deg C) and ice cubes (0 deg C) and surrounded by a normal room temperature (20-23 deg C)…
8. There is are some important differences in the sides (or walls) of the Regular and Fancy cups…
9. This is how the differences in the sides (or walls) of the Regular and Fancy cups can alter the typical flow of heat energy…
10. In conclusion…
How We Represented It…
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Homework: Students have been asked to spend 20 minutes of time outside of class to start writing their answer to a modified version of our Driving Question, which is, “How does a Fancy cup keep ice water from warming up better than a Regular cup?”
- Students do not have to finish answering the question, but Dr. M would like students to be able to show evidence of 20 minutes of work at the start of Friday’s science lesson.
Lesson 4 - Thurs, Feb 22 (B) & Fri, Feb 23 (E & G)
Focus Question: Why does the temperature of the liquid in some cup systems change more than in others?
What We Did…
Students had the entire lesson to work on Draft #1 of their final answer to a modified version of our Driving Question: How does a Fancy cup keep ice water from warming up better than a Regular cup? At the end of the lesson, Dr. M asked students to leave a completed first draft–whether handwritten or digital–with him. He will provide students with feedback on the draft so that students can then work next week on Draft #2.
What We Figured Out…
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How We Represented It…
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Homework: Text
Announcements...
The DRIVING QUESTION of our current unit is: How can containers keep stuff from warming up or cooling down?
#1 - ...
#2 - ...