Next Generation Science Storylines
Why Do Some Things Get Colder (or Hotter) When They React?
Some reactions absorb heat while others release it. Young scholars investigate both types of reactions in a 12-lesson unit. Each lesson presents a lab investigation that monitors temperature and considers the types of reactions taking...
Curated OER
Science: Let's Have a Cool Lunch
First graders develop problem-solving skills by designing methods for keeping lunch boxes cool. Once they determine the amount of sunlight and heat generated in shaded and unshaded areas, they explore ways to provide shade. Finally, 1st...
Curated OER
Elementary Concepts in Heat
Third graders read a thermometer with accuracy, record observations and data, and infer conceptual meaning. They integrate mathematical charting and graphing skills to organize their data. They explore what happens when they touch or use...
Curated OER
Passing The Heat Along
Fifth graders consider conduction. In this science lesson plan, 5th graders explore how heat passes through conductors and examine materials that contain heat.
Curated OER
Too Cool for School-The Greenhouse Experiment
Students create a town model and analyze the type of greenhouse gases their town emits. In this earth science lesson, students build greenhouses to investigate how trapped heat causes temperature change. They relate this activity to...
Curated OER
Heating of Water: Water Vapour
Seventh graders read the directions printed on their worksheet and follow them carefully. They set up a beaker with a tripod and Bunsen burner under it. They record the temperature of water every 30 seconds. Students graph the data and...
Curated OER
How Cool Is Your Environment?
Students study the formulas for calculating heat energy and how to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit. They apply the formulas on a worksheet.
Chymist
Temperature
Three Dog Night isn't just the name of a band; it is also the way an Australian tribe, who used dogs to stay warm, would describe the temperature on a cool evening. After reading about many different ways of measuring temperature, the...
Rhythm Rhyme Results
Whatʼs the Same and Whatʼs Different?
Learn about radiation, convection, and conduction with a multiple choice worksheet. Each question prompts kids to decide what is different about each form of heat energy transfer, and what is the same.
Space Awareness
Continental Climate and Oceanic Climate
There's nothing better than a cool breeze blowing in from the ocean. Scholars explore how water affects change in temperature using a hands-on experiment on climate. They use measurement tools to compare the continental and oceanic...
DiscoverE
Aviary Architect
Groups of two to four work collaboratively to engineer a birdhouse that will stay cool in the summer heat. Teams examine several different-colored roofs, testing the efficiency of each with a heat lamp. Then, groups sketch their ideas,...
Messenger Education
Design Challenge: How to Keep Gelatin from Melting
The inside of the spacecraft Messenger, which explores Mercury, will experience temperatures from 32 to 91 degrees Fahrenheit. In the final installment of a series of four space-related activities, groups spend time discussing and...
American Chemical Society
Designing a Shade Structure
Bring the learning outdoors with an enjoyable activity about Earth's heating, sunlight, and shade. Scholars use problem-solving skills as they design, build, and test a sunshade structure. Participants view a video summarizing the...
Curated OER
Hot Cans and Cold Cans
Learners investigate the physics of heating and cooling through conduction, convection, and radiation. Working in groups, they determine the best way to cool a can of water and warm a can of water. Temperature is taken at five minute...
Curated OER
Gases, Liquids and Solids, evaporate, shape volume,
Students conduct an online experiment to discover what happens to solids, liquids and gases in different temperatures. In this states of matter lesson, students get into pairs and work in a virtual laboratory to manipulate heating and...
Curated OER
Insulation-Black and White
Eighth graders construct 2 different model homes out of manila folders in order to examine how heat is transferred by means of radiation and convection. Activity allows students to interpret how different colors or material affect the...
Curated OER
STATES OF WATER
Students identify the various states of water. They use hypothesizing and hands-on experimenting on changing the states of water, the properties of water, and the role of heating and cooling in the changes of state.
Curated OER
Cool It
Students simulate lizard temperature regulation. In this Science lesson, students use a thermometer as a pretend lizard. Students must keep their lizard within a particular temperature range while moving through a specified course.
Curated OER
Cool Times with Heat
Learners work with thermometers to complete problems about temperature. They investigate cooling patterns, how location affects temperature, and what happens when water having different temperature is mixed. They measure temperature in...
American Chemical Society
Molecules in Motion
I heard that oxygen and magnesium were going out and I was like "O Mg." Pupils experiment with adding food coloring to water of various temperatures in order to determine how temperature impacts molecular movement. This is the...
Curated OER
Ice Ain't Easy
Students are introduced to the laws of thermodynamics. The 1st law of thermodynamics states that the energy must be conserved when two objects of different temperatures come in contact. If one object gains energy, the other object must...
Curated OER
Thermal Energy and Heat Unit
Young scholars explain that heat energy in a material consists of the disordered motions of its atoms or molecules. They know and explain that transformations of energy usually transform some energy into the form of heat, which...
Curated OER
Travel Mug Design
Learners create and develop a travel mug. They create visuals and a three dimensional infomercial. They apply an engineering design and demonstrate knowledge of thermodynamics involved in heat transfer. They illustrate Newton's Law of...